Systems and methods for directing multiple 4D energy fields

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are systems and methods for manufacturing energy directing systems for directing energy of multiple energy domains. Energy relays and energy waveguides are disclosed for directing energy of multiple energy domains, including electromagnetic energy, acoustic energy, and haptic energy. Systems are disclosed for projecting and sensing 4D energy-fields comprising multiple energy domains.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application No. 62/617,288, entitled “System and Methods forTransverse Energy Localization in Energy Relays Using OrderedStructures,” filed Jan. 14, 2018, and to U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 62/617,293, entitled “Novel Application of Holographicand Light Field Technology,” filed Jan. 14, 2018, which are both hereinincorporated by reference in their entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure generally relates to light field energy systems, andmore specifically, to systems of transverse localization of energy inenergy relays using ordered material distributions and methods ofmanufacturing energy relays thereof.

BACKGROUND

The dream of an interactive virtual world within a “holodeck” chamber aspopularized by Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek and originally envisioned byauthor Alexander Moszkowski in the early 1900s has been the inspirationfor science fiction and technological innovation for nearly a century.However, no compelling implementation of this experience exists outsideof literature, media, and the collective imagination of children andadults alike.

SUMMARY

Disclosed are systems and methods for manufacturing of energy directingsystems for directing energy of multiple energy domains. Energy relaysand energy waveguides are disclosed for directing multiple energydomains. Systems are disclosed for projecting and sensing 4Denergy-fields comprising multiple energy domains.

In an embodiment, an energy relay comprises: a first module and a secondmodule, the first module comprising an arrangement of first componentengineered structures and second component engineered structures in atransverse plane of the energy relay, and the second module comprisingan arrangement of third component engineered structures and fourthcomponent engineered structures in the transverse plane of the energyrelay; wherein the first and second component engineered structures areboth configured to transport energy belonging to a first energy domainalong a longitudinal plane that is normal to the transverse plane, andthe third and fourth component engineered structures are both configuredto transport energy belonging to a second energy domain, different fromthe first energy domain, along the longitudinal plane that is normal tothe transverse plane, the first module having substantially highertransport efficiency in the longitudinal plane than in the transverseplane for the first energy domain, and the second module havingsubstantially higher transport efficiency in the longitudinal plane thanin the transverse plane for the second energy domain.

In an embodiment, an energy relay comprises: a first module comprisingan arrangement of first component engineered structures and secondcomponent engineered structures in a transverse plane of the energyrelay; and an energy relay material; wherein the first module and theenergy relay material are distributed across the transverse plane of theenergy relay; wherein the first and second component engineeredstructures are both configured to transport energy belonging to a firstenergy domain along a longitudinal plane that is normal to thetransverse plane, and the energy relay material is configured totransport energy belonging to a second energy domain, different from thefirst energy domain, along the longitudinal plane that is normal to thetransverse plane, the first module having substantially higher transportefficiency in the longitudinal plane than in the transverse plane forthe first energy domain, and the energy relay material havingsubstantially higher transport efficiency in the longitudinal plane thanin the transverse plane for the second energy domain.

In an embodiment, a method of forming an energy relay comprises:providing a first energy relay material configured to transport energybelonging to a first energy domain along a longitudinal plane of theenergy relay; forming one or more mechanical openings in the firstenergy relay material, the one or more mechanical openings beingsubstantially oriented along the longitudinal plane; integrating asecond energy relay material into the one or more mechanical openings,the second energy relay material configured to transport energybelonging to a second energy domain, different than the first energydomain, along the longitudinal plane of the energy relay; wherein theenergy relay has substantially higher transport efficiency in thelongitudinal plane than in a transverse plane, normal to thelongitudinal plane, for the first and second energy domains.

In an embodiment, a method for forming an energy relay comprises:providing a plurality of first and second energy relay materialsconfigured to transport energy belonging to first and second energydomains, respectively, along a longitudinal plane of the energy relay;arranging the plurality of first and second energy relay materials in asubstantially non-random pattern in a transverse plane of the energyrelay, normal to the longitudinal plane; processing the arrangement offirst and second energy relay materials into a fused structure whilemaintaining the substantially non-random pattern of first and secondenergy relay materials in the transverse plane of the energy relay; andwherein the energy relay has substantially higher energy transportefficiency in the longitudinal plane than in the transverse plane.

In an embodiment, an energy-directing system comprises: an energy relaydevice comprising first and second energy relay materials, the firstenergy relay materials are configured to transport energy belonging to afirst energy domain, and the second energy relay materials areconfigured to transport energy belonging to a second energy domain,different from the first energy domain; wherein the energy relay devicecomprises a first surface, a second surface, and a third surface, theenergy relay configured to relay energy of the first domain along afirst plurality of energy propagation paths extending through the firstand second surfaces, and to relay energy of the second domain along asecond plurality of energy propagation paths extending through the firstand third surfaces; wherein the first and second pluralities of energypropagation paths are interleaved at the first surface forming aplurality of first energy locations of the first energy domain and aplurality of second energy locations of the second energy domain alongthe first surface; and the energy-directing system further comprising anarray of waveguides configured to direct energy to or from thepluralities of first and second energy locations.

In an embodiment, an energy directing system comprises: an energysurface comprising a plurality of first energy locations configured todirect a first energy from the energy surface; an energy devicecomprising one or more conductive diaphragms mounted between one or morepairs of electrically conductive planes comprising a plurality ofapertures; wherein the energy device is located adjacent to the energysurface and extends across at least a portion of a surface of the energysurface, the plurality of apertures being substantially coincident withthe plurality of first energy locations; wherein the one or moreconductive diaphragms are substantially transmissive of the first energydirected from the energy surface; and wherein the one or more pairs ofelectrically conductive planes are configured to move the one or moreconductive diaphragms to thereby produce a second energy directed fromthe energy device.

In an embodiment, an energy system comprises: an array of waveguides,each waveguide comprising one or more elements disposed on separatesubstrates, each waveguide comprising at least one aperture; an energydevice comprising one or more conductive diaphragms mounted between oneor more pairs of electrically conductive planes comprising a pluralityof energy apertures; wherein the plurality of energy apertures aresubstantially coincident with the plurality of waveguide apertures;wherein the energy device is configured to be accommodated between theseparate substrates of the array of waveguides.

In an embodiment, an energy directing system comprises: an energy sourcesystem configured to produce at least a first energy at a plurality ofenergy locations; an array of waveguides, wherein each waveguide of thearray of waveguides is configured to receive the at least first energyfrom a corresponding subset of the plurality of energy locations tosubstantially fill an aperture of each waveguide, and to direct the atleast first energy along a plurality of propagation paths determined inpart by the corresponding subset of the plurality of energy locations;and an energy device comprising one or more conductive diaphragmsmounted between one or more pairs of electrically conductive planescomprising a plurality of apertures; wherein the energy device islocated adjacent to the array of waveguides and extends across at leasta portion of the array of waveguides, the plurality of apertures of theenergy device being substantially coincident with the apertures of thearray of waveguides; wherein the one or more conductive diaphragms aresubstantially transmissive of the at least first energy directed alongthe plurality of propagation paths; and wherein, the energy device isconfigured such that, as a voltage is applied across the one or morepairs of electrically conductive planes, the one or more pairs ofelectrically conductive planes induce a movement of the one or moreconductive diaphragms, thereby producing a second energy directed incoordination with the plurality of propagation paths.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating design parameters for anenergy directing system;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an energy system having anactive device area with a mechanical envelope;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating an energy relay system;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating an embodiment of energy relayelements adhered together and fastened to a base structure;

FIG. 5A is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a relayedimage through multi-core optical fibers;

FIG. 5B is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a relayedimage through an optical relay that exhibits the properties of theTransverse Anderson Localization principle;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing rays propagated from an energysurface to a viewer;

FIG. 7A illustrates a cutaway view of a flexible energy relay whichachieves Transverse Anderson Localization by intermixing two componentmaterials within an oil or liquid, in accordance with one embodiment ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 7B illustrates a cutaway view of a rigid energy relay whichachieves Transverse Anderson Localization by intermixing two componentmaterials within a bonding agent, and in doing so, achieves a path ofminimum variation in one direction for one material property, inaccordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 illustrates a cutaway view in the transverse plane the inclusionof a DEMA (dimensional extra mural absorption) material in thelongitudinal direction designed to absorb energy, in accordance with oneembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 illustrates a cutaway view in the transverse plane of a portionof an energy relay comprising a random distribution of two componentmaterials;

FIG. 10 illustrates a cutaway view in the transverse plane of a moduleof an energy relay comprising a non-random pattern of three componentmaterials which define a single module;

FIG. 11 illustrates a cutaway view in the transverse plane of a portionof a pre-fused energy relay comprising a random distribution of twocomponent materials;

FIG. 12A illustrates a cutaway view in the transverse plane of a portionof a pre-fused energy relay comprising a non-random pattern of threecomponent materials which define multiple modules with similarorientations;

FIG. 12B illustrates a cutaway view in the transverse plane of a portionof a pre-fused energy relay comprising a non-random pattern of threecomponent materials which define multiple modules with varyingorientations;

FIG. 13 illustrates a cutaway view in the transverse plane of a portionof a fused energy relay comprising a random distribution of twocomponent materials;

FIG. 14 illustrates a cutaway view in the transverse plane of a portionof a fused energy relay comprising a non-random pattern of particlescomprising one of three component materials;

FIG. 15 illustrates a cross-sectional view of a portion of an energyrelay comprising a randomized distribution of two different CESmaterials;

FIG. 16 illustrates a cross-sectional view of a portion of an energyrelay comprising a non-random pattern of three different CES materials;

FIG. 17 illustrates a cross-sectional perspective view of a portion ofan energy relay comprising a randomized distribution of aggregatedparticles comprising one of two component materials;

FIG. 18 illustrates a cross-sectional perspective view of a portion ofan energy relay comprising a non-random pattern of aggregated particlescomprising one of three component materials;

FIG. 19A illustrates an energy relay combining device, in accordancewith one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 19B illustrates a further embodiment of FIG. 19A, in accordancewith one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 20 illustrates an orthogonal view of an implementation of an energywaveguide system, in accordance with one embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 21 illustrates an orthogonal view of another implementation of anenergy waveguide system, in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 22 illustrates an orthogonal view of yet another implementation, inaccordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 23A illustrates a cutaway view on the transverse plane of anordered energy relay capable of transporting energy of multiple energydomains;

FIG. 23B illustrates a cutaway view in the longitudinal plane of anordered energy relay capable of transporting energy of multiple energydomains;

FIG. 24 illustrates a system for manufacturing an energy relay materialcapable of propagating energy of two different energy domains;

FIG. 25 illustrates a perspective view of an energy relay elementcapable of relaying energy of two different energy domains;

FIG. 26 illustrates a perspective view of an energy relay elementcapable of relaying energy of two different energy domains whichincludes flexible energy waveguides;

FIG. 27A illustrates a multi-energy domain waveguide comprisingdifferent materials before fusing;

FIG. 27B illustrates a multi-energy domain waveguide comprisingdifferent materials after fusing;

FIG. 28 illustrates a perspective view of an energy relay comprising aplurality of perforations;

FIG. 29 illustrates a tapered energy relay mosaic arrangement;

FIG. 30 illustrates a side view of an energy relay element stackcomprising of two compound optical relay tapers in series;

FIG. 31 illustrates an orthogonal view of the fundamental principles ofinternal reflection;

FIG. 32 illustrates an orthogonal view of a light ray entering anoptical fiber, and the resulting conical light distribution at the exitof the relay;

FIG. 33 illustrates an orthogonal view of an optical taper relayconfiguration with a 3:1 magnification factor and the resulting viewedangle of light of an attached energy source, in accordance with oneembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 34 illustrates an orthogonal view of the optical taper relay ofFIG. 33, but with a curved surface on the energy source side of theoptical taper relay resulting in the increased overall viewing angle ofthe energy source, in accordance with one embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 35 illustrates an orthogonal view of the optical taper relay ofFIG. 33, but with non-perpendicular but planar surface on the energysource side, in accordance with one embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 36 illustrates an orthogonal view of an embodiment of the opticalrelay and illumination cones of FIG. 33 with a concave surface on theside of the energy source;

FIG. 37 illustrates an orthogonal view of an embodiment of the opticaltaper relay and light illumination cones of FIG. 36 with the sameconcave surface on the side of the energy source, but with a convexoutput energy surface geometry, in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 38 illustrates an orthogonal view of multiple optical taper modulescoupled together with curved energy source side surfaces to form anenergy source viewable image from a perpendicular energy source surface,in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 39 illustrates an orthogonal view of multiple optical taper modulescoupled together with perpendicular energy source side geometries and aconvex energy source surface radial about a center axis, in accordancewith one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 40 illustrates an orthogonal view of multiple optical taper relaymodules coupled together with perpendicular energy source sidegeometries and a convex energy source side surface radial about a centeraxis, in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 41 illustrates an orthogonal view of multiple optical taper relaymodules with each energy source independently configured such that theviewable output rays of light are more uniform as viewed at the energysource, in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 42 illustrates an orthogonal view of multiple optical taper relaymodules where both the energy source side and the energy source areconfigured with various geometries to provide control over the input andoutput rays of light, in accordance with one embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 43 illustrates an orthogonal view of an arrangement of multipleoptical taper relay modules whose individual output energy surfaces havebeen ground to form a seamless concave cylindrical energy source whichsurrounds the viewer, with the source ends of the relays flat and eachbonded to an energy source;

FIG. 44 illustrates a view of the essential components of anelectrostatic speaker;

FIG. 45 illustrates a side view of an energy projection system withincorporated electrostatic speaker elements;

FIG. 46 illustrates a side view of an energy display device consistingsimply of an energy source system comprising energy sources whichproject energy;

FIG. 47 illustrates a side view of a portion of a 4D energy projectionsystem which integrates perforated conductive elements of anelectrostatic speaker as energy inhibiting elements between adjacentwaveguides;

FIG. 48 illustrates an orthogonal view of a portion of a 4D energyprojection system which integrates the perforated conductive elements ofan electrostatic speaker as energy inhibiting elements within awaveguide array structure, between multiple layers of waveguideelements;

FIG. 49 illustrates an orthogonal view of an embodiment of one module ofa modular electrostatic speaker system;

FIG. 50 illustrates an orthogonal view of an embodiment of severalelectrostatic speaker modules placed in an assembly disposed in front ofan array of waveguides mounted on a waveguide substrate;

FIG. 51 illustrates an orthogonal view of an embodiment of a modular 4Denergy field package that projects a 4D energy field as well asvibrational sound waves produced by an electrostatic speaker;

FIG. 52 illustrates an orthogonal view of an embodiment of a modularenergy-projecting wall consisting of several 4D energy field packageswith electrostatic speakers 5100 mounted onto a wall;

FIG. 53 illustrates a front view of an embodiment of a single electrodeused for an electrostatic speaker system, consisting of a set of clearapertures in a pair of conductive planes, surrounding a conductivediaphragm;

FIG. 54 illustrates a front view of an electrostatic speaker whichcomprises four identical modules, which all may be driven separately;

FIG. 55 illustrates a front view an embodiment of the conductive elementpair and diaphragm of an electrostatic speaker with a combined area offour smaller electrostatic speakers;

FIG. 56 illustrates a perspective view of an embodiment of a scenecontaining dancers in front of a light field display equipped with anintegrated electrostatic speaker, which is projecting a holographicmusician and simultaneously playing music;

FIG. 57 illustrates a perspective view of an embodiment of an energyprojection device equipped with an electrostatic speaker system that hasa plurality of independently-controlled electrostatic speaker regions;

FIG. 58 illustrates a perspective view of an embodiment of an energydirecting device where energy relay element stacks are arranged in an8×4 array to form a singular seamless energy directing surface;

FIG. 59 contains several views of an energy directing device;

FIG. 60 contains a close-up view of the side view from FIG. 17 of theenergy directing device;

FIG. 61 illustrates a top-down perspective view of an embodiment of anenergy waveguide system operable to define a plurality of energypropagation paths; and

FIG. 62 illustrates a front perspective view of the embodiment shown inFIG. 61.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

An embodiment of a Holodeck (collectively called “Holodeck DesignParameters”) provide sufficient energy stimulus to fool the humansensory receptors into believing that received energy impulses within avirtual, social and interactive environment are real, providing: 1)binocular disparity without external accessories, head-mounted eyewear,or other peripherals; 2) accurate motion parallax, occlusion and opacitythroughout a viewing volume simultaneously for any number of viewers; 3)visual focus through synchronous convergence, accommodation and miosisof the eye for all perceived rays of light; and 4) converging energywave propagation of sufficient density and resolution to exceed thehuman sensory “resolution” for vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell,and/or balance.

Based upon conventional technology to date, we are decades, if notcenturies away from a technology capable of providing for all receptivefields in a compelling way as suggested by the Holodeck DesignParameters including the visual, auditory, somatosensory, gustatory,olfactory, and vestibular systems.

In this disclosure, the terms light field and holographic may be usedinterchangeably to define the energy propagation for stimulation of anysensory receptor response. While initial disclosures may refer toexamples of electromagnetic and mechanical energy propagation throughenergy surfaces for holographic imagery and volumetric haptics, allforms of sensory receptors are envisioned in this disclosure.Furthermore, the principles disclosed herein for energy propagationalong propagation paths may be applicable to both energy emission andenergy capture.

Many technologies exist today that are often unfortunately confused withholograms including lenticular printing, Pepper's Ghost, glasses-freestereoscopic displays, horizontal parallax displays, head-mounted VR andAR displays (HMD), and other such illusions generalized as“fauxlography.” These technologies may exhibit some of the desiredproperties of a true holographic display, however, lack the ability tostimulate the human visual sensory response in any way sufficient toaddress at least two of the four identified Holodeck Design Parameters.

These challenges have not been successfully implemented by conventionaltechnology to produce a seamless energy surface sufficient forholographic energy propagation. There are various approaches toimplementing volumetric and direction multiplexed light field displaysincluding parallax barriers, hogels, voxels, diffractive optics,multi-view projection, holographic diffusers, rotational mirrors,multilayered displays, time sequential displays, head mounted display,etc., however, conventional approaches may involve a compromise on imagequality, resolution, angular sampling density, size, cost, safety, framerate, etc., ultimately resulting in an unviable technology.

To achieve the Holodeck Design Parameters for the visual, auditory,somatosensory systems, the human acuity of each of the respectivesystems is studied and understood to propagate energy waves tosufficiently fool the human sensory receptors. The visual system iscapable of resolving to approximately 1 arc min, the auditory system maydistinguish the difference in placement as little as three degrees, andthe somatosensory systems at the hands are capable of discerning pointsseparated by 2-12 mm. While there are various and conflicting ways tomeasure these acuities, these values are sufficient to understand thesystems and methods to stimulate perception of energy propagation.

Of the noted sensory receptors, the human visual system is by far themost sensitive given that even a single photon can induce sensation. Forthis reason, much of this introduction will focus on visual energy wavepropagation, and vastly lower resolution energy systems coupled within adisclosed energy waveguide surface may converge appropriate signals toinduce holographic sensory perception. Unless otherwise noted, alldisclosures apply to all energy and sensory domains.

When calculating for effective design parameters of the energypropagation for the visual system given a viewing volume and viewingdistance, a desired energy surface may be designed to include manygigapixels of effective energy location density. For wide viewingvolumes, or near field viewing, the design parameters of a desiredenergy surface may include hundreds of gigapixels or more of effectiveenergy location density. By comparison, a desired energy source may bedesigned to have 1 to 250 effective megapixels of energy locationdensity for ultrasonic propagation of volumetric haptics or an array of36 to 3,600 effective energy locations for acoustic propagation ofholographic sound depending on input environmental variables. What isimportant to note is that with a disclosed bi-directional energy surfacearchitecture, all components may be configured to form the appropriatestructures for any energy domain to enable holographic propagation.

However, the main challenge to enable the Holodeck today involvesavailable visual technologies and electromagnetic device limitations.Acoustic and ultrasonic devices are less challenging given the orders ofmagnitude difference in desired density based upon sensory acuity in therespective receptive field, although the complexity should not beunderestimated. While holographic emulsion exists with resolutionsexceeding the desired density to encode interference patterns in staticimagery, state-of-the-art display devices are limited by resolution,data throughput and manufacturing feasibility. To date, no singulardisplay device has been able to meaningfully produce a light fieldhaving near holographic resolution for visual acuity.

Production of a single silicon-based device capable of meeting thedesired resolution for a compelling light field display may notpractical and may involve extremely complex fabrication processes beyondthe current manufacturing capabilities. The limitation to tilingmultiple existing display devices together involves the seams and gapformed by the physical size of packaging, electronics, enclosure, opticsand a number of other challenges that inevitably result in an unviabletechnology from an imaging, cost and/or a size standpoint.

The embodiments disclosed herein may provide a real-world path tobuilding the Holodeck.

Example embodiments will now be described hereinafter with reference tothe accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and whichillustrate example embodiments which may be practiced. As used in thedisclosures and the appended claims, the terms “embodiment”, “exampleembodiment”, and “exemplary embodiment” do not necessarily refer to asingle embodiment, although they may, and various example embodimentsmay be readily combined and interchanged, without departing from thescope or spirit of example embodiments. Furthermore, the terminology asused herein is for the purpose of describing example embodiments onlyand is not intended to be limitations. In this respect, as used herein,the term “in” may include “in” and “on”, and the terms “a,” “an” and“the” may include singular and plural references. Furthermore, as usedherein, the term “by” may also mean “from”, depending on the context.Furthermore, as used herein, the term “if” may also mean “when” or“upon,” depending on the context. Furthermore, as used herein, the words“and/or” may refer to and encompass any and all possible combinations ofone or more of the associated listed items.

Holographic System Considerations: Overview of Light Field EnergyPropagation Resolution

Light field and holographic display is the result of a plurality ofprojections where energy surface locations provide angular, color andintensity information propagated within a viewing volume. The disclosedenergy surface provides opportunities for additional information tocoexist and propagate through the same surface to induce other sensorysystem responses. Unlike a stereoscopic display, the viewed position ofthe converged energy propagation paths in space do not vary as theviewer moves around the viewing volume and any number of viewers maysimultaneously see propagated objects in real-world space as if it wastruly there. In some embodiments, the propagation of energy may belocated in the same energy propagation path but in opposite directions.For example, energy emission and energy capture along an energypropagation path are both possible in some embodiments of the presentdisclosed.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating variables relevant forstimulation of sensory receptor response. These variables may includesurface diagonal 101, surface width 102, surface height 103, adetermined target seating distance 118, the target seating field of viewfield of view from the center of the display 104, the number ofintermediate samples demonstrated here as samples between the eyes 105,the average adult inter-ocular separation 106, the average resolution ofthe human eye in arcmin 107, the horizontal field of view formed betweenthe target viewer location and the surface width 108, the vertical fieldof view formed between the target viewer location and the surface height109, the resultant horizontal waveguide element resolution, or totalnumber of elements, across the surface 110, the resultant verticalwaveguide element resolution, or total number of elements, across thesurface 111, the sample distance based upon the inter-ocular spacingbetween the eyes and the number of intermediate samples for angularprojection between the eyes 112, the angular sampling may be based uponthe sample distance and the target seating distance 113, the totalresolution Horizontal per waveguide element derived from the angularsampling desired 114, the total resolution Vertical per waveguideelement derived from the angular sampling desired 115, device Horizontalis the count of the determined number of discreet energy sources desired116, and device Vertical is the count of the determined number ofdiscreet energy sources desired 117.

A method to understand the desired minimum resolution may be based uponthe following criteria to ensure sufficient stimulation of visual (orother) sensory receptor response: surface size (e.g., 84″ diagonal),surface aspect ratio (e.g., 16:9), seating distance (e.g., 128″ from thedisplay), seating field of view (e.g., 120 degrees or +/−60 degreesabout the center of the display), desired intermediate samples at adistance (e.g., one additional propagation path between the eyes), theaverage inter-ocular separation of an adult (approximately 65 mm), andthe average resolution of the human eye (approximately 1 arcmin). Theseexample values should be considered placeholders depending on thespecific application design parameters.

Further, each of the values attributed to the visual sensory receptorsmay be replaced with other systems to determine desired propagation pathparameters. For other energy propagation embodiments, one may considerthe auditory system's angular sensitivity as low as three degrees, andthe somatosensory system's spatial resolution of the hands as small as2-12 mm.

While there are various and conflicting ways to measure these sensoryacuities, these values are sufficient to understand the systems andmethods to stimulate perception of virtual energy propagation. There aremany ways to consider the design resolution, and the below proposedmethodology combines pragmatic product considerations with thebiological resolving limits of the sensory systems. As will beappreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, the following overviewis a simplification of any such system design, and should be consideredfor exemplary purposes only.

With the resolution limit of the sensory system understood, the totalenergy waveguide element density may be calculated such that thereceiving sensory system cannot discern a single energy waveguideelement from an adjacent element, given:

${{Surface}\mspace{14mu}{Aspect}\mspace{14mu}{Ratio}} = \frac{{Width}(W)}{{Height}(H)}$${{Surface}\mspace{14mu}{Horizontal}\mspace{14mu}{Size}} = {{Surface}\mspace{14mu}{Diagonal}*\left( \frac{1}{\sqrt{\left( {1 + \left( \frac{H}{W} \right)^{2}} \right.}} \right)}$${{Surface}\mspace{14mu}{Vertical}\mspace{14mu}{Size}} = {{Surface}\mspace{14mu}{Diagonal}*\left( \frac{1}{\sqrt{\left( {1 + \left( \frac{W}{H} \right)^{2}} \right.}} \right)}$${{Horizontal}\mspace{14mu}{Field}\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{View}} = {2*{{atan}\left( \frac{{Surface}\mspace{14mu}{Horizontal}\mspace{14mu}{Size}}{2*{Seating}\mspace{14mu}{Distance}} \right)}}$${{Vertical}\mspace{14mu}{Field}\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{View}} = {2*{{atan}\left( \frac{{Surface}\mspace{14mu}{Vertical}\mspace{14mu}{Size}}{2*{Seating}\mspace{14mu}{Distance}} \right)}}$${{Horizontal}\mspace{14mu}{Element}\mspace{14mu}{Resolution}} = {{Horizontal}\mspace{14mu}{FoV}*\frac{60}{{Eye}\mspace{14mu}{Resolution}}}$${{Vertical}\mspace{14mu}{Element}\mspace{14mu}{Resolution}} = {{Vertical}\mspace{14mu}{FoV}*\frac{60}{{Eye}\mspace{14mu}{Resolution}}}$

The above calculations result in approximately a 32×18° field of viewresulting in approximately 1920×1080 (rounded to nearest format) energywaveguide elements being desired. One may also constrain the variablessuch that the field of view is consistent for both (u, v) to provide amore regular spatial sampling of energy locations (e.g. pixel aspectratio). The angular sampling of the system assumes a defined targetviewing volume location and additional propagated energy paths betweentwo points at the optimized distance, given:

${{Sample}\mspace{14mu}{Distance}} = \frac{{Inter}\text{-}{Ocular}\mspace{14mu}{Distance}}{\left( {{{Number}\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{Desired}\mspace{14mu}{Intermediate}\mspace{14mu}{Samples}} + 1} \right)}$${{Angular}\mspace{14mu}{Sampling}} = {{atan}\left( \frac{{Sample}\mspace{14mu}{Distance}}{{Seating}\mspace{14mu}{Distance}} \right)}$

In this case, the inter-ocular distance is leveraged to calculate thesample distance although any metric may be leveraged to account forappropriate number of samples as a given distance. With the abovevariables considered, approximately one ray per 0.57° may be desired andthe total system resolution per independent sensory system may bedetermined, given:

${{Locations}\mspace{14mu}{Per}\mspace{14mu}{{Element}(N)}} = \frac{{Seating}\mspace{14mu}{FoV}}{{Angular}\mspace{14mu}{Sampling}}$Total  Resolution  H = N * Horizontal  Element  ResolutionTotal  Resolution  V = N * Vertical  Element  Resolution

With the above scenario given the size of energy surface and the angularresolution addressed for the visual acuity system, the resultant energysurface may desirably include approximately 400k×225k pixels of energyresolution locations, or 90 gigapixels holographic propagation density.These variables provided are for exemplary purposes only and many othersensory and energy metrology considerations should be considered for theoptimization of holographic propagation of energy. In an additionalembodiment, 1 gigapixel of energy resolution locations may be desiredbased upon the input variables. In an additional embodiment, 1,000gigapixels of energy resolution locations may be desired based upon theinput variables.

Current Technology Limitations: Active Area, Device Electronics,Packaging, and the Mechanical Envelope

FIG. 2 illustrates a device 200 having an active area 220 with a certainmechanical form factor. The device 200 may include drivers 230 andelectronics 240 for powering and interface to the active area 220, theactive area having a dimension as shown by the x and y arrows. Thisdevice 200 does not take into account the cabling and mechanicalstructures to drive, power and cool components, and the mechanicalfootprint may be further minimized by introducing a flex cable into thedevice 200. The minimum footprint for such a device 200 may also bereferred to as a mechanical envelope 210 having a dimension as shown bythe M:x and M:y arrows. This device 200 is for illustration purposesonly and custom electronics designs may further decrease the mechanicalenvelope overhead, but in almost all cases may not be the exact size ofthe active area of the device. In an embodiment, this device 200illustrates the dependency of electronics as it relates to active imagearea 220 for a micro OLED, DLP chip or LCD panel, or any othertechnology with the purpose of image illumination.

In some embodiments, it may also be possible to consider otherprojection technologies to aggregate multiple images onto a largeroverall display. However, this may come at the cost of greatercomplexity for throw distance, minimum focus, optical quality, uniformfield resolution, chromatic aberration, thermal properties, calibration,alignment, additional size or form factor. For most practicalapplications, hosting tens or hundreds of these projection sources 200may result in a design that is much larger with less reliability.

For exemplary purposes only, assuming energy devices with an energylocation density of 3840×2160 sites, one may determine the number ofindividual energy devices (e.g., device 100) desired for an energysurface, given:

${{Devices}\mspace{14mu} H} = \frac{{Total}\mspace{14mu}{Resolution}\mspace{14mu} H}{{Device}\mspace{14mu}{Resolution}\mspace{14mu} H}$${{Devices}\mspace{14mu} V} = \frac{{Total}\mspace{14mu}{Resolution}\mspace{14mu} V}{{Device}\mspace{14mu}{Resolution}\mspace{14mu} V}$

Given the above resolution considerations, approximately 105×105 devicessimilar to those shown in FIG. 2 may be desired. It should be noted thatmany devices consist of various pixel structures that may or may not mapto a regular grid. In the event that there are additional sub-pixels orlocations within each full pixel, these may be exploited to generateadditional resolution or angular density. Additional signal processingmay be used to determine how to convert the light field into the correct(u,v) coordinates depending on the specified location of the pixelstructure(s) and can be an explicit characteristic of each device thatis known and calibrated. Further, other energy domains may involve adifferent handling of these ratios and device structures, and thoseskilled in the art will understand the direct intrinsic relationshipbetween each of the desired frequency domains. This will be shown anddiscussed in more detail in subsequent disclosure.

The resulting calculation may be used to understand how many of theseindividual devices may be desired to produce a full resolution energysurface. In this case, approximately 105×105 or approximately 11,080devices may be desired to achieve the visual acuity threshold. Thechallenge and novelty exists within the fabrication of a seamless energysurface from these available energy locations for sufficient sensoryholographic propagation.

Summary of Seamless Energy Surfaces: Configurations and Designs forArrays of Energy Relays

In some embodiments, approaches are disclosed to address the challengeof generating high energy location density from an array of individualdevices without seams due to the limitation of mechanical structure forthe devices. In an embodiment, an energy propagating relay system mayallow for an increase the effective size of the active device area tomeet or exceed the mechanical dimensions to configure an array of relaysand form a singular seamless energy surface.

FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of such an energy relay system 300. Asshown, the relay system 300 may include a device 310 mounted to amechanical envelope 320, with an energy relay element 330 propagatingenergy from the device 310. The relay element 330 may be configured toprovide the ability to mitigate any gaps 340 that may be produced whenmultiple mechanical envelopes 320 of the device are placed into an arrayof multiple devices 310.

For example, if a device's active area 310 is 20 mm×10 mm and themechanical envelope 320 is 40 mm×20 mm, an energy relay element 330 maybe designed with a magnification of 2:1 to produce a tapered form thatis approximately 20 mm×10 mm on a minified end (arrow A) and 40 mm×20 mmon a magnified end (arrow B), providing the ability to align an array ofthese elements 330 together seamlessly without altering or collidingwith the mechanical envelope 320 of each device 310. Mechanically, therelay elements 330 may be bonded or fused together to align and polishensuring minimal seam gap 340 between devices 310. In one suchembodiment, it is possible to achieve a seam gap 340 smaller than thevisual acuity limit of the eye.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a base structure 400 having energyrelay elements 410 formed together and securely fastened to anadditional mechanical structure 430. The mechanical structure of theseamless energy surface 420 provides the ability to couple multipleenergy relay elements 410, 450 in series to the same base structurethrough bonding or other mechanical processes to mount relay elements410, 450. In some embodiments, each relay element 410 may be fused,bonded, adhered, pressure fit, aligned or otherwise attached together toform the resultant seamless energy surface 420. In some embodiments, adevice 480 may be mounted to the rear of the relay element 410 andaligned passively or actively to ensure appropriate energy locationalignment within the determined tolerance is maintained.

In an embodiment, the seamless energy surface comprises one or moreenergy locations and one or more energy relay element stacks comprise afirst and second side and each energy relay element stack is arranged toform a singular seamless display surface directing energy alongpropagation paths extending between one or more energy locations and theseamless display surface, and where the separation between the edges ofany two adjacent second sides of the terminal energy relay elements isless than the minimum perceptible contour as defined by the visualacuity of a human eye having better than 20/40 vision at a distancegreater than the width of the singular seamless display surface.

In an embodiment, each of the seamless energy surfaces comprise one ormore energy relay elements each with one or more structures forming afirst and second surface with a transverse and longitudinal orientation.The first relay surface has an area different than the second resultingin positive or negative magnification and configured with explicitsurface contours for both the first and second surfaces passing energythrough the second relay surface to substantially fill a +/−10-degreeangle with respect to the normal of the surface contour across theentire second relay surface.

In an embodiment, multiple energy domains may be configured within asingle, or between multiple energy relays to direct one or more sensoryholographic energy propagation paths including visual, acoustic, tactileor other energy domains.

In an embodiment, the seamless energy surface is configured with energyrelays that comprise two or more first sides for each second side toboth receive and emit one or more energy domains simultaneously toprovide bi-directional energy propagation throughout the system.

In an embodiment, the energy relays are provided as loose coherentelements.

Introduction to Component Engineered Structures: Disclosed Advances inTransverse Anderson Localization Energy Relays

The properties of energy relays may be significantly optimized accordingto the principles disclosed herein for energy relay elements that induceTransverse Anderson Localization. Transverse Anderson Localization isthe propagation of a ray transported through a transversely disorderedbut longitudinally consistent material.

This implies that the effect of the materials that produce the AndersonLocalization phenomena may be less impacted by total internal reflectionthan by the randomization between multiple-scattering paths where waveinterference can completely limit the propagation in the transverseorientation while continuing in the longitudinal orientation.

Of significant additional benefit is the elimination of the cladding oftraditional multi-core optical fiber materials. The cladding is tofunctionally eliminate the scatter of energy between fibers, butsimultaneously act as a barrier to rays of energy thereby reducingtransmission by at least the core to clad ratio (e.g., a core to cladratio of 70:30 will transmit at best 70% of received energytransmission) and additionally forms a strong pixelated patterning inthe propagated energy.

FIG. 5A illustrates an end view of an example of one such non-AndersonLocalization energy relay 500, wherein an image is relayed throughmulti-core optical fibers where pixilation and fiber noise may beexhibited due to the intrinsic properties of the optical fibers. Withtraditional multi-mode and multi-core optical fibers, relayed images maybe intrinsically pixelated due to the properties of total internalreflection of the discrete array of cores where any cross-talk betweencores will reduce the modulation transfer function and increaseblurring. The resulting imagery produced with traditional multi-coreoptical fiber tends to have a residual fixed noise fiber pattern similarto those shown in FIG. 5A.

FIG. 5B, illustrates an example of the same relayed image 550 through anenergy relay comprising materials that exhibit the properties ofTransverse Anderson Localization, where the relayed pattern has agreater density grain structures as compared to the fixed fiber patternfrom FIG. 5A. In an embodiment, relays comprising randomized microscopiccomponent engineered structures induce Transverse Anderson Localizationand transport light more efficiently with higher propagation ofresolvable resolution than commercially available multi-mode glassoptical fibers.

In an embodiment, a relay element exhibiting Transverse AndersonLocalization may comprise a plurality of at least two differentcomponent engineered structures in each of three orthogonal planesarranged in a dimensional lattice and the plurality of structures formrandomized distributions of material wave propagation properties in atransverse plane within the dimensional lattice and channels of similarvalues of material wave propagation properties in a longitudinal planewithin the dimensional lattice, wherein energy waves propagating throughthe energy relay have higher transport efficiency in the longitudinalorientation versus the transverse orientation and are spatiallylocalized in the transverse orientation.

In an embodiment, a randomized distribution of material wave propagationproperties in a transverse plane within the dimensional lattice may leadto undesirable configurations due to the randomized nature of thedistribution. A randomized distribution of material wave propagationproperties may induce Anderson Localization of energy on average acrossthe entire transverse plane, however limited areas of similar materialwave propagation properties may form inadvertently as a result of theuncontrolled random distribution. For example, if the size of theselocal areas of similar wave propagation properties become too largerelative to their intended energy transport domain, there may be apotential reduction in the efficiency of energy transport through thematerial.

In an embodiment, a relay may be formed from a randomized distributionof component engineered structures to transport visible light of acertain wavelength range by inducing Transverse Anderson Localization ofthe light. However, due to their random distribution, the structures mayinadvertently arrange such that a continuous area of a single componentengineered structure forms across the transverse plane which is multipletimes larger than the wavelength of visible light. As a result, visiblelight propagating along the longitudinal axis of the large, continuous,single-material region may experience a lessened Transverse AndersonLocalization effect and may suffer degradation of transport efficiencythrough the relay.

In an embodiment, it may be desirable to design an ordered distributionof material wave propagation properties in the transverse plane of anenergy relay material. Such an ordered distribution would ideally inducean energy localization effect through methods similar to TransverseAnderson Localization, while minimizing potential reductions intransport efficiency due to abnormally distributed material propertiesinherently resulting from a random property distribution. Using anordered distribution of material wave propagation properties to induce atransverse energy localization effect similar to that of TransverseAnderson Localization in an energy relay element will hereafter bereferred to as Ordered Energy Localization.

In an embodiment, multiple energy domains may be configured within asingle, or between multiple Ordered Energy Localization energy relays todirect one or more sensory holographic energy propagation pathsincluding visual, acoustic, tactile or other energy domains.

In an embodiment, the seamless energy surface is configured with OrderedEnergy Localization energy relays that comprise two or more first sidesfor each second side to both receive and emit one or more energy domainssimultaneously to provide bi-directional energy propagation throughoutthe system.

In an embodiment, the Ordered Energy Localization energy relays areconfigured as loose coherent or flexible energy relay elements.

Considerations for 4D Plenoptic Functions: Selective Propagation ofEnergy Through Holographic Waveguide Arrays

As discussed above and herein throughout, a light field display systemgenerally includes an energy source (e.g., illumination source) and aseamless energy surface configured with sufficient energy locationdensity as articulated in the above discussion. A plurality of relayelements may be used to relay energy from the energy devices to theseamless energy surface. Once energy has been delivered to the seamlessenergy surface with the requisite energy location density, the energycan be propagated in accordance with a 4D plenoptic function through adisclosed energy waveguide system. As will be appreciated by one ofordinary skill in the art, a 4D plenoptic function is well known in theart and will not be elaborated further herein.

The energy waveguide system selectively propagates energy through aplurality of energy locations along the seamless energy surfacerepresenting the spatial coordinate of the 4D plenoptic function with astructure configured to alter an angular direction of the energy wavespassing through representing the angular component of the 4D plenopticfunction, wherein the energy waves propagated may converge in space inaccordance with a plurality of propagation paths directed by the 4Dplenoptic function. In an embodiment, an energy propagation path may bedefined by a 4D coordinate comprising a 2D spatial coordinate and a 2Dangular coordinate. In an embodiment, a plurality of energy propagationpaths defined by 4D coordinates may be described by a 4D energy-fieldfunction.

Reference is now made to FIG. 6 illustrating an example of light fieldenergy surface in 4D image space in accordance with a 4D plenopticfunction. The figure illustrates an embodiment of ray traces of anenergy surface 600 to a viewer 620 in describing how the rays of energyconverge in space 630 from various positions within the viewing volume.As shown, each waveguide element 610 defines four dimensions ofinformation describing energy propagation 640 through the energy surface600. Two spatial dimensions (herein referred to as x and y) are thephysical plurality of energy locations that can be viewed in imagespace, and the angular components theta and phi (herein referred to as uand v), which is viewed in virtual space when projected through theenergy waveguide array. In general, and in accordance with a 4Dplenoptic function, the plurality of waveguides (e.g., lenslets) areable to direct an energy location from the x, y dimension to a uniquelocation in virtual space, along a direction defined by the u, v angularcomponent, in forming the holographic or light field system describedherein.

However, one skilled in the art will understand that a significantchallenge to light field and holographic display technologies arisesfrom uncontrolled propagation of energy due designs that have notaccurately accounted for any of diffraction, scatter, diffusion, angulardirection, calibration, focus, collimation, curvature, uniformity,element cross-talk, as well as a multitude of other parameters thatcontribute to decreased effective resolution as well as an inability toaccurately converge energy with sufficient fidelity.

In an embodiment, an approach to selective energy propagation foraddressing challenges associated with holographic display may includeenergy inhibiting elements and substantially filling waveguide apertureswith near-collimated energy into an environment defined by a 4Dplenoptic function.

In an embodiment, an array of energy waveguides may define a pluralityof energy propagation paths for each waveguide element configured toextend through and substantially fill the waveguide element's effectiveaperture in unique directions defined by a prescribed 4D function to aplurality of energy locations along a seamless energy surface inhibitedby one or more elements positioned to limit propagation of each energylocation to only pass through a single waveguide element.

In an embodiment, multiple energy domains may be configured within asingle, or between multiple energy waveguides to direct one or moresensory holographic energy propagations including visual, acoustic,tactile or other energy domains.

In an embodiment, the energy waveguides and seamless energy surface areconfigured to both receive and emit one or more energy domains toprovide bi-directional energy propagation throughout the system.

In an embodiment, the energy waveguides are configured to propagatenon-linear or non-regular distributions of energy, includingnon-transmitting void regions, leveraging digitally encoded,diffractive, refractive, reflective, grin, holographic, Fresnel, or thelike waveguide configurations for any seamless energy surfaceorientation including wall, table, floor, ceiling, room, or othergeometry based environments. In an additional embodiment, an energywaveguide element may be configured to produce various geometries thatprovide any surface profile and/or tabletop viewing allowing users toview holographic imagery from all around the energy surface in a360-degree configuration.

In an embodiment, the energy waveguide array elements may be reflectivesurfaces and the arrangement of the elements may be hexagonal, square,irregular, semi-regular, curved, non-planar, spherical, cylindrical,tilted regular, tilted irregular, spatially varying and/ormulti-layered.

For any component within the seamless energy surface, waveguide, orrelay components may include, but not limited to, optical fiber,silicon, glass, polymer, optical relays, diffractive, holographic,refractive, or reflective elements, optical face plates, energycombiners, beam splitters, prisms, polarization elements, spatial lightmodulators, active pixels, liquid crystal cells, transparent displays,or any similar materials exhibiting Anderson localization or totalinternal reflection.

Realizing the Holodeck: Aggregation of Bi-directional Seamless EnergySurface Systems to Stimulate Human Sensory Receptors within HolographicEnvironments

It is possible to construct large-scale environments of seamless energysurface systems by tiling, fusing, bonding, attaching, and/or stitchingmultiple seamless energy surfaces together forming arbitrary sizes,shapes, contours or form-factors including entire rooms. Each energysurface system may comprise an assembly having a base structure, energysurface, relays, waveguide, devices, and electronics, collectivelyconfigured for bi-directional holographic energy propagation, emission,reflection, or sensing.

In an embodiment, an environment of tiled seamless energy systems areaggregated to form large seamless planar or curved walls includinginstallations comprising up to all surfaces in a given environment, andconfigured as any combination of seamless, discontinuous planar,faceted, curved, cylindrical, spherical, geometric, or non-regulargeometries.

In an embodiment, aggregated tiles of planar surfaces form wall-sizedsystems for theatrical or venue-based holographic entertainment. In anembodiment, aggregated tiles of planar surfaces cover a room with fourto six walls including both ceiling and floor for cave-based holographicinstallations. In an embodiment, aggregated tiles of curved surfacesproduce a cylindrical seamless environment for immersive holographicinstallations. In an embodiment, aggregated tiles of seamless sphericalsurfaces form a holographic dome for immersive Holodeck-basedexperiences.

In an embodiment, aggregates tiles of seamless curved energy waveguidesprovide mechanical edges following the precise pattern along theboundary of energy inhibiting elements within the energy waveguidestructure to bond, align, or fuse the adjacent tiled mechanical edges ofthe adjacent waveguide surfaces, resulting in a modular and seamlessenergy waveguide system.

In a further embodiment of an aggregated tiled environment, energy ispropagated bidirectionally for multiple simultaneous energy domains. Inan additional embodiment, the energy surface provides the ability toboth display and capture simultaneously from the same energy surfacewith waveguides designed such that light field data may be projected byan illumination source through the waveguide and simultaneously receivedthrough the same energy surface. In an additional embodiment, additionaldepth sensing and active scanning technologies may be leveraged to allowfor the interaction between the energy propagation and the viewer incorrect world coordinates. In an additional embodiment, the energysurface and waveguide are operable to emit, reflect or convergefrequencies to induce tactile sensation or volumetric haptic feedback.In some embodiments, any combination of bi-directional energypropagation and aggregated surfaces are possible.

In an embodiment, the system comprises an energy waveguide capable ofbi-directional emission and sensing of energy through the energy surfacewith one or more energy devices independently paired withtwo-or-more-path energy combiners to pair at least two energy devices tothe same portion of the seamless energy surface, or one or more energydevices are secured behind the energy surface, proximate to anadditional component secured to the base structure, or to a location infront and outside of the FOV of the waveguide for off-axis direct orreflective projection or sensing, and the resulting energy surfaceprovides for bi-directional transmission of energy allowing thewaveguide to converge energy, a first device to emit energy and a seconddevice to sense energy, and where the information is processed toperform computer vision related tasks including, but not limited to, 4Dplenoptic eye and retinal tracking or sensing of interference withinpropagated energy patterns, depth estimation, proximity, motiontracking, image, color, or sound formation, or other energy frequencyanalysis. In an additional embodiment, the tracked positions activelycalculate and modify positions of energy based upon the interferencebetween the bi-directional captured data and projection information.

In some embodiments, a plurality of combinations of three energy devicescomprising an ultrasonic sensor, a visible electromagnetic display, andan ultrasonic emitting device are configured together for each of threefirst relay surfaces propagating energy combined into a single secondenergy relay surface with each of the three first surfaces comprisingengineered properties specific to each device's energy domain, and twoengineered waveguide elements configured for ultrasonic andelectromagnetic energy respectively to provide the ability to direct andconverge each device's energy independently and substantially unaffectedby the other waveguide elements that are configured for a separateenergy domain.

In some embodiments, disclosed is a calibration procedure to enableefficient manufacturing to remove system artifacts and produce ageometric mapping of the resultant energy surface for use withencoding/decoding technologies as well as dedicated integrated systemsfor the conversion of data into calibrated information appropriate forenergy propagation based upon the calibrated configuration files.

In some embodiments, additional energy waveguides in series and one ormore energy devices may be integrated into a system to produce opaqueholographic pixels.

In some embodiments, additional waveguide elements may be integratedcomprising energy inhibiting elements, beam-splitters, prisms, activeparallax barriers or polarization technologies in order to providespatial and/or angular resolutions greater than the diameter of thewaveguide or for other super-resolution purposes.

In some embodiments, the disclosed energy system may also be configuredas a wearable bi-directional device, such as virtual reality (VR) oraugmented reality (AR). In other embodiments, the energy system mayinclude adjustment optical element(s) that cause the displayed orreceived energy to be focused proximate to a determined plane in spacefor a viewer. In some embodiments, the waveguide array may beincorporated to holographic head-mounted-display. In other embodiments,the system may include multiple optical paths to allow for the viewer tosee both the energy system and a real-world environment (e.g.,transparent holographic display). In these instances, the system may bepresented as near field in addition to other methods.

In some embodiments, the transmission of data comprises encodingprocesses with selectable or variable compression ratios that receive anarbitrary dataset of information and metadata; analyze said dataset andreceive or assign material properties, vectors, surface IDs, new pixeldata forming a more sparse dataset, and wherein the received data maycomprise: 2D, stereoscopic, multi-view, metadata, light field,holographic, geometry, vectors or vectorized metadata, and anencoder/decoder may provide the ability to convert the data in real-timeor off-line comprising image processing for: 2D; 2D plus depth, metadataor other vectorized information; stereoscopic, stereoscopic plus depth,metadata or other vectorized information; multi-view; multi-view plusdepth, metadata or other vectorized information; holographic; or lightfield content; through depth estimation algorithms, with or withoutdepth metadata; and an inverse ray tracing methodology appropriatelymaps the resulting converted data produced by inverse ray tracing fromthe various 2D, stereoscopic, multi-view, volumetric, light field orholographic data into real world coordinates through a characterized 4Dplenoptic function. In these embodiments, the total data transmissiondesired may be multiple orders of magnitudes less transmittedinformation than the raw light field dataset.

FIG. 61 illustrates a top-down perspective view of an embodiment of anenergy waveguide system 9100 operable to define a plurality of energypropagation paths 9108. Energy waveguide system 9100 comprises an arrayof energy waveguides 9112 configured to direct energy therethrough alongthe plurality of energy propagation paths 9108. In an embodiment, theplurality of energy propagation paths 9108 extend through a plurality ofenergy locations 9118 on a first side of the array 9116 to a second sideof the array 9114.

Referring to FIG. 61, in an embodiment, a first subset of the pluralityof energy propagation paths 9108 extend through a first energy location9122. The first energy waveguide 9104 is configured to direct energyalong a first energy propagation path 9120 of the first subset of theplurality of energy propagation paths 9108. The first energy propagationpath 9120 may be defined by a first chief ray 9138 formed between thefirst energy location 9122 and the first energy waveguide 9104. Thefirst energy propagation path 9120 may comprise rays 9138A and 9138B,formed between the first energy location 9122 and the first energywaveguide 9104, which are directed by first energy waveguide 9104 alongenergy propagation paths 9120A and 9120B, respectively. The first energypropagation path 9120 may extend from the first energy waveguide 9104towards the second side of the array 9114. In an embodiment, energydirected along the first energy propagation path 9120 comprises one ormore energy propagation paths between or including energy propagationpaths 9120A and 9120B, which are directed through the first energywaveguide 9104 in a direction that is substantially parallel to theangle propagated through the second side 9114 by the first chief ray9138.

Embodiments may be configured such that energy directed along the firstenergy propagation path 9120 may exit the first energy waveguide 9104 ina direction that is substantially parallel to energy propagation paths9120A and 9120B and to the first chief ray 9138. It may be assumed thatan energy propagation path extending through an energy waveguide element9112 on the second side 9114 comprises a plurality of energy propagationpaths of a substantially similar propagation direction.

FIG. 62 is a front view illustration of an embodiment of energywaveguide system 9100. The first energy propagation path 9120 may extendtowards the second side 9114 of the array 9112 shown in FIG. 61 in aunique direction 9208 extending from the first energy waveguide 9104,which is determined at least by the first energy location 9122. Thefirst energy waveguide 9104 may be defined by a spatial coordinate 9204,and the unique direction 9208 which is determined at least by firstenergy location 9122 may be defined by an angular coordinate 9206defining the directions of the first energy propagation path 9120. Thespatial coordinate 9204 and the angular coordinate 9206 may form afour-dimensional plenoptic coordinate set 9210 which defines the uniquedirection 9208 of the first energy propagation path 9120.

In an embodiment, energy directed along the first energy propagationpath 9120 through the first energy waveguide 9104 substantially fills afirst aperture 9134 of the first energy waveguide 9104, and propagatesalong one or more energy propagation paths which lie between energypropagation paths 9120A and 9120B and are parallel to the direction ofthe first energy propagation path 9120. In an embodiment, the one ormore energy propagation paths that substantially fill the first aperture9134 may comprise greater than 50% of the first aperture 9134 diameter.In an embodiment, the array of waveguides 9100 may be arranged to form adisplay wall.

In an embodiment, energy directed along the first energy propagationpath 9120 through the first energy waveguide 9104 which substantiallyfills the first aperture 9134 may comprise between 50% to 80% of thefirst aperture 9134 diameter.

Turning back to FIG. 61, in an embodiment, the energy waveguide system9100 may further comprise an energy inhibiting element 9124 positionedto limit propagation of energy between the first side 9116 and thesecond side 9114 and to inhibit energy propagation between adjacentwaveguides 9112. In an embodiment, the energy inhibiting element isconfigured to inhibit energy propagation along a portion of the firstsubset of the plurality of energy propagation paths 108 that do notextend through the first aperture 9134. In an embodiment, the energyinhibiting element 9124 may be located on the first side 9116 betweenthe array of energy waveguides 9112 and the plurality of energylocations 9118. In an embodiment, the energy inhibiting element 9124 maybe located on the second side 9114 between the plurality of energylocations 9118 and the energy propagation paths 9108. In an embodiment,the energy inhibiting element 9124 may be located on the first side 9116or the second side 9114 orthogonal to the array of energy waveguides9112 or the plurality of energy locations 9118.

In an embodiment, energy directed along the first energy propagationpath 9120 may converge with energy directed along a second energypropagation path 9126 through a second energy waveguide 9128. The firstand second energy propagation paths may converge at a location 9130 onthe second side 9114 of the array 9112. In an embodiment, a third andfourth energy propagation paths 9140, 9141 may also converge at alocation 9132 on the first side 9116 of the array 9112. In anembodiment, a fifth and sixth energy propagation paths 9142, 9143 mayalso converge at a location 9136 between the first and second sides9116, 9114 of the array 9112.

In an embodiment, the energy waveguide system 9100 may comprisestructures for directing energy such as: a structure configured to alteran angular direction of energy passing therethrough, for example arefractive, diffractive, reflective, gradient index, holographic, orother optical element; a structure comprising at least one numericalaperture; a structure configured to redirect energy off at least oneinternal surface; an optical relay; etc. It is to be appreciated thatthe waveguides 9112 may include any one or combination of bidirectionalenergy directing structure or material, such as:

-   -   a) refraction, diffraction, or reflection;    -   b) single or compound multilayered elements;    -   c) holographic optical elements and digitally encoded optics;    -   d) 3D printed elements or lithographic masters or replicas;    -   e) Fresnel lenses, gratings, zone plates, binary optical        elements;    -   f) retro reflective elements;    -   g) fiber optics, total internal reflection or Anderson        Localization;    -   h) gradient index optics or various refractive index matching        materials;    -   i) glass, polymer, gas, solids, liquids;    -   j) acoustic waveguides;    -   k) micro & nano scale elements; or    -   l) polarization, prisms or beam splitters.

In an embodiment, the energy waveguide systems propagate energybidirectionally.

In an embodiment, the energy waveguides are configured for propagationof mechanical energy in the form of sound waves.

In an embodiment, the energy waveguides are configured for propagationof electromagnetic energy.

In an embodiment, by interlacing, layering, reflecting, combining, orotherwise provisioning the appropriate material properties within one ormore structures within an energy waveguide element, and within one ormore layers comprising an energy waveguide system, the energy waveguidesare configured for simultaneous propagation of mechanical,electromagnetic and/or other forms of energy.

In an embodiment, the energy waveguides propagate energy with differingratios for u and v respectively within a 4D coordinate system.

In an embodiment, the energy waveguides propagate energy with ananamorphic function. In an embodiment, the energy waveguides comprisemultiple elements along the energy propagation path.

In an embodiment, the energy waveguides are directly formed from opticalfiber relay polished surfaces.

In an embodiment, the energy waveguide system comprises materialsexhibiting Transverse Anderson Localization.

In an embodiment, the energy waveguide system propagates hypersonicfrequencies to converge tactile sensation in a volumetric space.

In an embodiment, the array of energy waveguide elements may include:

a) A hexagonal packing of the array of energy waveguides;

b) A square packing of the array of energy waveguides;

c) An irregular or semi-regular packing of the array of energywaveguides;

d) Curved or Non-planar array of energy waveguides;

e) Spherical array of energy waveguides;

f) Cylindrical array of energy waveguides;

g) Tilted regular array of energy waveguides;

h) Tilted irregular array of energy waveguides;

i) Spatially varying array of energy waveguides;

j) Multi-layered array of energy waveguides;

Limitations of Anderson Localization Materials and Introduction ofOrdered Energy Localization

While the Anderson localization principle was introduced in the 1950s,it wasn't until recent technological breakthroughs in materials andprocesses which allowed the principle to be explored practically inoptical transport. Transverse Anderson localization is the propagationof a wave transported through a transversely disordered butlongitudinally invariant material without diffusion of the wave in thetransverse plane.

Within the prior art, Transverse Anderson localization has been observedthrough experimentation in which a fiber optic face plate is fabricatedthrough drawing millions of individual strands of fiber with differentrefractive index (RI) that were mixed randomly and fused together. Whenan input beam is scanned across one of the surfaces of the face plate,the output beam on the opposite surface follows the transverse positionof the input beam. Since Anderson localization exhibits in disorderedmediums an absence of diffusion of waves, some of the fundamentalphysics are different when compared to optical fiber relays. Thisimplies that the effect of the optical fibers that produce the Andersonlocalization phenomena are less impacted by total internal reflectionthan by the randomization between multiple-scattering paths where waveinterference can completely limit the propagation in the transverseorientation while continuing in the longitudinal path. Further to thisconcept, it is introduced herein that an ordered distribution ofmaterial wave propagation properties may be used in place of arandomized distribution in the transverse plane of an energy transportdevice. Such an ordered distribution may induce what is referred toherein as Ordered Energy Localization in a transverse plane of thedevice. This Ordered Energy Localization reduces the occurrence oflocalized grouping of similar material properties, which can arise dueto the nature of random distributions but which act to degrade theoverall efficacy of energy transport through the device.

In an embodiment, it may be possible for Ordered Energy Localizationmaterials to transport light with a contrast as high as, or better than,the highest quality commercially available multimode glass image fibers,as measured by an optical modulation transfer function (MTF). Withmultimode and multicore optical fibers, the relayed images areintrinsically pixelated due to the properties of total internalreflection of the discrete array of cores where any cross-talk betweencores will reduce MTF and increase blurring. The resulting imageryproduced with multicore optical fiber tends to have a residual fixednoise fiber pattern, as illustrated in FIG. 5A. By contrast, FIG. 5Billustrates the same relayed image through an example material samplethat exhibits Ordered Energy Localization, which is similar to that ofthe Transverse Anderson Localization principle, where the noise patternappears much more like a grain structure than a fixed fiber pattern.

Another advantage to optical relays that exhibit the Ordered Energylocalization phenomena is that it they can be fabricated from a polymermaterial, resulting in reduced cost and weight. A similar optical-gradematerial, generally made of glass or other similar materials, may costmore than a hundred times the cost of the same dimension of materialgenerated with polymers. Further, the weight of the polymer relay opticscan be 10-100× less given that up to a majority of the density of thematerial is air and other light weight plastics. For the avoidance ofdoubt, any material that exhibits the Anderson localization property, orthe Ordered Energy Localization property as described herein, may beincluded in this disclosure, even if it does not meet the above cost andweight suggestions. As one skilled in the art will understand that theabove suggestion is a single embodiment that lends itself to significantcommercial viabilities that similar glass products exclude. Ofadditional benefit is that for Ordered Energy Localization to work,optical fiber cladding may not be needed, which for traditionalmulticore fiber optics is required to prevent the scatter of lightbetween fibers, but simultaneously blocks a portion of the rays of lightand thus reduces transmission by at least the core-to-clad ratio (e.g. acore-to-clad ratio of 70:30 will transmit at best 70% of receivedillumination).

Another benefit is the ability to produce many smaller parts that can bebonded or fused without seams as the material fundamentally has no edgesin the traditional sense, and the merger of any two pieces is nearly thesame as generating the component as a singular piece depending on theprocess to merge the two or more pieces together. For large scaleapplications, this is a significant benefit for the ability tomanufacture without massive infrastructure or tooling costs, and itprovides the ability to generate single pieces of material that wouldotherwise be impossible with other methods. Traditional plastic opticalfibers have some of these benefits, but due to the cladding generallystill involve a seam line of some distances.

The present disclosure includes methods of manufacturing materialsexhibiting the Ordered Energy Localization phenomena. A process isproposed to construct relays of electromagnetic energy, acoustic energy,or other types of energy using building blocks that consist of one ormore component engineered structures (CES). The term CES refers to abuilding block component with specific engineered properties (EP) thatinclude, but are not limited to, material type, size, shape, refractiveindex, center-of-mass, charge, weight, absorption, and magnetic moment,among other properties. The size scale of the CES may be on the order ofwavelength of the energy wave being relayed, and can vary across themilli-scale, the micro-scale, or the nano-scale. The other EP's are alsohighly dependent on the wavelength of the energy wave.

Within the scope of the present disclosure, a particular arrangement ofmultiple CES may form an ordered pattern, which may be repeated in thetransverse direction across a relay to effectively induce Ordered EnergyLocalization. A single instance of such an ordered pattern of CES isreferred to herein as a module. A module may comprise two or more CES. Agrouping of two or more modules within a relay is referred to herein asa structure.

Ordered Energy Localization is a general wave phenomenon that applies tothe transport of electromagnetic waves, acoustic waves, quantum waves,energy waves, among others. The one or more building block structuresrequired to form an energy wave relay that exhibits Ordered EnergyLocalization each have a size that is on the order of the correspondingwavelength. Another parameter for the building blocks is the speed ofthe energy wave in the materials used for those building blocks, whichincludes refractive index for electromagnetic waves, and acousticimpedance for acoustic waves. For example, the building block sizes andrefractive indices can vary to accommodate any frequency in theelectromagnetic spectrum, from X-rays to radio waves.

For this reason, discussions in this disclosure about optical relays canbe generalized to not only the full electromagnetic spectrum, but toacoustical energy and other types of energy. For this reason, the use ofthe terms energy source, energy surface, and energy relay will be usedoften, even if the discussion is focused on one particular form ofenergy such as the visible electromagnetic spectrum.

For the avoidance of doubt, the material quantities, process, types,refractive index, and the like are merely exemplary and any opticalmaterial that exhibits the Ordered Energy localization property isincluded herein. Further, any use of ordered materials and processes isincluded herein.

It should be noted that the principles of optical design noted in thisdisclosure apply generally to all forms of energy relays, and the designimplementations chosen for specific products, markets, form factors,mounting, etc. may or may not need to address these geometries but forthe purposes of simplicity, any approach disclosed is inclusive of allpotential energy relay materials.

In one embodiment, for the relay of visible electromagnetic energy, thetransverse size of the CES should be on the order of 1 micron. Thematerials used for the CES can be any optical material that exhibits theoptical qualities desired to include, but not limited to, glass,plastic, resin and the like. The index of refraction of the materialsare higher than 1, and if two CES types are chosen, the difference inrefractive index becomes a key design parameter. The aspect ratio of thematerial may be chosen to be elongated, in order to assist wavepropagation in a longitudinal direction.

In embodiments, energy from other energy domains may be relayed usingCES. For example, acoustic energy or haptic energy, which may bemechanical vibrational forms of energy, may be relayed. Appropriate CESmay be chosen based on transport efficiency in these alternate energydomains. For example, air may be selected as a CES material type inrelaying acoustic or haptic energy. In embodiments, empty space or avacuum may be selected as a CES in order to relay certain forms ofelectromagnetic energy. Furthermore, two different CES may share acommon material type, but may differ in another engineered property,such as shape.

The formation of a CES may be completed as a destructive process thattakes formed materials and cuts the pieces into a desired shapedformation or any other method known in the art, or additive, where theCES may be grown, printed, formed, melted, or produced in any othermethod known in the art. Additive and destructive processes may becombined for further control over fabrication. These pieces are nowconstructed to a specified structure size and shape.

In one embodiment, for electromagnetic energy relays, it may be possibleto use optical grade bonding agents, epoxies, or other known opticalmaterials that may start as a liquid and form an optical grade solidstructure through various means including but not limited to UV, heat,time, among other processing parameters. In another embodiment, thebonding agent is not cured or is made of index matching oils forflexible applications. Bonding agent may be applied to solid structuresand non-curing oils or optical liquids. These materials may exhibitcertain refractive index (RI) properties. The bonding agent needs tomatch the RI of either CES material type 1 or CES material type 2. Inone embodiment, the RI of this optical bonding agent is 1.59, the sameas PS. In a second embodiment, the RI of this optical bonding agent is1.49, the same as PMMA. In another embodiment, the RI of this opticalbonding agent is 1.64, the same as a thermoplastic polyester (TP)material.

In one embodiment, for energy waves, the bonding agent may be mixed intoa blend of CES material type 1 and CES material type 2 in order toeffectively cancel out the RI of the material that the bonding agent RImatches. The bonding agent may be thoroughly intermixed, with enoughtime given to achieve escape of air voids, desired distributions ofmaterials, and development of viscous properties. Additional constantagitation may be implemented to ensure the appropriate mixture of thematerials to counteract any separation that may occur due to variousdensities of materials or other material properties.

It may be required to perform this process in a vacuum or in a chamberto evacuate any air bubbles that may form. An additional methodology maybe to introduce vibration during the curing process.

An alternate method provides for three or more CES with additional formcharacteristics and EPs.

In one embodiment, for electromagnetic energy relays, an additionalmethod provides for only a single CES to be used with only the bondingagent, where the RI of the CES and the bonding agent differ.

An additional method provides for any number of CESs and includes theintentional introduction of air bubbles.

In one embodiment, for electromagnetic energy relays, a method providesfor multiple bonding agents with independent desired RIs, and a processto intermix the zero, one, or more CES's as they cure either separatelyor together to allow for the formation of a completely intermixedstructure. Two or more separate curing methodologies may be leveraged toallow for the ability to cure and intermix at different intervals withdifferent tooling and procedural methodologies. In one embodiment, a UVcure epoxy with a RI of 1.49 is intermixed with a heat cure second epoxywith a RI of 1.59 where constant agitation of the materials isprovisioned with alternating heat and UV treatments with only sufficientduration to begin to see the formation of solid structures from withinthe larger mixture, but not long enough for any large particles to form,until such time that no agitation can be continued once the curingprocess has nearly completed, whereupon the curing processes areimplemented simultaneously to completely bond the materials together. Ina second embodiment, CES with a RI of 1.49 are added. In a thirdembodiment, CES with both a RI of 1.49 and 1.59 both added.

In another embodiment, for electromagnetic energy relays, glass andplastic materials are intermixed based upon their respective RIproperties.

In an additional embodiment, the cured mixture is formed in a mold andafter curing is cut and polished. In another embodiment, the materialsleveraged will re-liquefy with heat and are cured in a first shape andthen pulled into a second shape to include, but not limited to, tapersor bends.

It should be appreciated that there exist a number of well-knownconventional methods used to weld polymeric materials together. Many ofthese techniques are described in ISO 472 (“Plastics-Vocabulary”,International Organization for Standardization, Switzerland 1999) whichis herein incorporated by reference in its entirety, and which describesprocesses for uniting softened surfaces of material including thermal,mechanical (e.g. vibration welding, ultrasonic welding, etc.),electromagnetic, and chemical (solvent) welding methods. In the contextof the present disclosure, the terms “fuse,” “fusing” or “fused” havethe meaning that two or more polymeric materials in an embodiment havehad their surfaces united or joined together by any of theabove-described techniques known to those skilled in the art.Furthermore, non-polymeric materials may also be used in certainembodiments. The meaning of the terms “fuse,” “fusing” or “fused” in thecontext of those materials have similar meanings analogous to the arrayof welding techniques described above and known to one skilled in theart of uniting or joining those non-polymeric materials.

FIG. 7A illustrates a cutaway view of a flexible implementation 70 of arelay exhibiting the Transverse Anderson Localization approach using CESmaterial type 1 (72) and CES material type 2 (74) with intermixing oilor liquid 76 and with the possible use of end cap relays 79 to relay theenergy waves from a first surface 77 to a second surface 77 on eitherend of the relay within a flexible tubing enclosure 78 in accordancewith one embodiment of the present disclosure. The CES material type 1(72) and CES material type 2 (74) both have the engineered property ofbeing elongated—in this embodiment, the shape is elliptical, but anyother elongated or engineered shape such as cylindrical or stranded isalso possible. The elongated shape allows for channels of minimumengineered property variation 75.

For an embodiment for visible electromagnetic energy relays,implementation 70 may have the bonding agent replaced with a refractiveindex matching oil 76 with a refractive index that matches CES materialtype 2 (74) and placed into the flexible tubing enclosure 78 to maintainflexibility of the mixture of CES material type 1 and CES material 2,and the end caps 79 would be solid optical relays to ensure that animage can be relayed from one surface of an end cap to the other. Theelongated shape of the CES materials allows channels of minimumrefractive index variation 75.

Multiple instances of 70 can be interlaced into a single surface inorder to form a relay combiner in solid or flexible form.

In one embodiment, for visible electromagnetic energy relays, severalinstances of 70 may each be connected on one end to a display deviceshowing only one of many specific tiles of an image, with the other endof the optical relay placed in a regular mosaic, arranged in such a wayto display the full image with no noticeable seams. Due to theproperties of the CES materials, it is additionally possible to fusemultiple the multiple optical relays within the mosaic together.

FIG. 7B illustrates a cutaway view of a rigid implementation 750 of aCES Transverse Anderson Localization energy relay. CES material type 1(72) and CES material type 2 (74) are intermixed with bonding agent 753which matches the index of refraction of material 2 (74). It is possibleto use optional relay end caps 79 to relay the energy wave from thefirst surface 77 to a second surface 77 within the enclosure 754. TheCES material type 1 (72) and CES material type 2 (74) both have theengineered property of being elongated—in this embodiment, the shape iselliptical, but any other elongated or engineered shape such ascylindrical or stranded is also possible. Also shown in FIG. 7B is apath of minimum engineered property variation 75 along the longitudinaldirection 751, which assists the energy wave propagation in thisdirection 751 from one end cap surface 77 to the other end cap surface77.

The initial configuration and alignment of the CESs can be done withmechanical placement, or by exploiting the EP of the materials,including but not limited to: electric charge, which when applied to acolloid of CESs in a liquid can result in colloidal crystal formation;magnetic moments which can help order CESs containing trace amounts offerromagnetic materials, or relative weight of the CESs used, which withgravity helps to create layers within the bonding liquid prior tocuring.

In one embodiment, for electromagnetic energy relays, the implementationdepicted in FIG. 7B would have the bonding agent 753 matching the indexof refraction of CES material type 2 (74), the optional end caps 79would be solid optical relays to ensure that an image can be relayedfrom one surface of an end cap to the other, and the EP with minimallongitudinal variation would be refractive index, creating channels 75which would assist the propagation of localized electromagnetic waves.

In an embodiment for visible electromagnetic energy relays, FIG. 8illustrates a cutaway view in the transverse plane the inclusion of aDEMA (dimensional extra mural absorption) CES, 80, along with CESmaterial types 72, 74 in the longitudinal direction of one exemplarymaterial at a given percentage of the overall mixture of the material,which controls stray light, in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent disclosure for visible electromagnetic energy relays.

The additional CES materials that do not transmit light are added to themixture(s) to absorb random stray light, similar to EMA in traditionaloptical fiber technologies, except that the distribution of theabsorbing materials may be random in all three dimensions, as opposed tobeing invariant in the longitudinal dimension. Herein this material iscalled DEMA, 80. Leveraging this approach in the third dimensionprovides far more control than previous methods of implementation. UsingDEMA, the stray light control is much more fully randomized than anyother implementation, including those that include a stranded EMA thatultimately reduces overall light transmission by the fraction of thearea of the surface of all the optical relay components it occupies. Incontrast, DEMA is intermixed throughout the relay material, effectivelycontrolling the light transmission in the longitudinal direction withoutthe same reduction of light in the transverse. The DEMA can be providedin any ratio of the overall mixture. In one embodiment, the DEMA is 1%of the overall mixture of the material. In a second embodiment, the DEMAis 10% of the overall mixture of the material.

In an additional embodiment, the two or more materials are treated withheat and/or pressure to perform the bonding process and this may or maynot be completed with a mold or other similar forming process known inthe art. This may or may not be applied within a vacuum or a vibrationstage or the like to eliminate air bubbles during the melt process. Forexample, CES with material type polystyrene (PS) andpolymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) may be intermixed and then placed into anappropriate mold that is placed into a uniform heat distributionenvironment capable of reaching the melting point of both materials andcycled to and from the respective temperature without causingdamage/fractures due to exceeding the maximum heat elevation ordeclination per hour as dictated by the material properties.

For processes that require intermixing materials with additional liquidbonding agents, in consideration of the variable specific densities ofeach material, a process of constant rotation at a rate that preventsseparation of the materials may be required.

Differentiating Anderson and Ordered Energy Relay Materials

FIG. 9 illustrates a cutaway view in the transverse plane of a portion900 of a pre-fused energy relay comprising a randomized distribution ofparticles, each particle comprising one of two component materials,component engineered structure (CES) 902 and CES 904. In an embodiment,particles comprising either CES 902 or CES 904 may possess differentmaterial properties, such as different refractive indices, and mayinduce an Anderson Localization effect in energy transportedtherethrough, localizing energy in the transverse plane of the material.In an embodiment, particles comprising either CES 902 or CES 904 mayextend into and out of the plane of the illustration in a longitudinaldirection, thereby allowing energy propagation along the longitudinaldirection with decreased scattering effects compared to traditionaloptical fiber energy relays due to the localization of energy in thetransverse plane of the material.

FIG. 10 illustrates a cutaway view in the transverse plane of module1000 of a pre-fused energy relay comprising an ordered distribution ofparticles, each particle comprising one of three component materials,CES 1002, CES 1004, or CES 1006. Particles comprising one of CES's 1002,1004, or 1006 may possess different material properties, such asdifferent refractive indices, which may induce an energy localizationeffect in the transverse plane of the module. The pattern of particlescomprising one of CES's 1002, 1004, or 1006 may be contained within amodule boundary 1008, which defines the particular pattern thatparticles comprising one of CES's 1002, 1004, or 1006 are arranged in.Similar to FIG. 9, particles comprising one of CES's 1002, 1004, or 1006may extend in a longitudinal direction into and out of the plane of theillustration to allow energy propagation along the longitudinaldirection with decreased scattering effects compared to traditionaloptical fiber energy relays due to the localization of energy in thetransverse plane of the material.

Particles comprising one of CES's 902 or 904 from FIG. 9 and particlescomprising one of CES's 1002, 1004, or 1006 from FIG. 10 may be long,thin rods of respective material which extend in a longitudinaldirection normal to the plane of the illustration and are arranged inthe particular patterns shown in FIG. 9 and FIG. 10 respectively.Although small gaps may exist between individual particles of CES due tothe circular cross-sectional shape of the particles shown in FIG. 9 andFIG. 10, these gaps would effectively be eliminated upon fusing, as theCES materials would gain some fluidity during the fusing process and“melt” together to fill in any gaps. While the cross-sectional shapesillustrated in FIG. 9 and FIG. 10 are circular, this should not beconsidered limiting of the scope of this disclosure, and one skilled inthe art should recognize that any shape or geometry of pre-fusedmaterial may be utilized in accordance with the principles disclosedherein.

FIG. 11 illustrates a cutaway view in the transverse plane of a portion1100 of a pre-fused energy relay comprising a random distribution ofparticles comprising one of two component materials, CES 1102 or CES1104. The portion 1100 may have a plurality of sub-portions, such assub-portions 1106 and 1108 each comprising a randomized distribution ofparticles comprising either CES 1102 or 1104. The random distribution ofparticles comprising either CES 1102 or CES 1104 may, after fusing ofthe relay, induce a Transverse Anderson Localization effect in energyrelayed in a longitudinal direction through portion 1100.

FIG. 13 illustrates a cutaway view in the transverse plane of a portion1300 of a fused energy relay comprising a random distribution ofparticles comprising one of two component materials CES 1302 or CES1304. Portion 1300 may represent a possible fused form of portion 1100from FIG. 11. In the context of the present disclosure, when adjacentparticles of similar CES aggregate together upon fusing, this isreferred to as an aggregated particle (AP). An example of an AP of CES1302 can be seen at 1308, which may represent the fused form of severalunfused CES 1302 particles (shown in FIG. 11). As illustrated in FIG.13, the boundaries between each continuous particle of similar CES, aswell as the boundaries between modules with similar CES borderparticles, are eliminated upon fusing, while new boundaries are formedbetween AP's of different CES.

According to the Anderson Localization principle, a randomizeddistribution of materials with different energy wave propagationproperties distributed in the transverse direction of a material willlocalize energy within that direction, inhibiting energy scattering andreducing interference which may degrade the transport efficiency of thematerial. In the context of transporting electromagnetic energy, forexample, through increasing the amount of variance in refractive indexin the transverse direction by randomly distributing materials withdiffering refractive indices, it becomes possible to localize theelectromagnetic energy in the transverse direction.

However, as discussed previously, due to the nature of randomizeddistributions, there exists the possibility that undesirablearrangements of materials may inadvertently form, which may limit therealization of energy localization effects within the material. Forexample, AP 1306 of FIG. 13 could potentially form after fusing therandomized distribution of particles shown in the corresponding locationin FIG. 11. When designing a material for transporting electromagneticenergy, for example, a design consideration is the transverse size ofpre-fused particles of CES. In order to prevent energy from scatteringin the transverse direction, one may select a particle size such thatupon fusing, the resultant average AP size is substantially on the orderof the wavelength of the electromagnetic energy the material is intendedto transport. However, while the average AP size can be designed for,one skilled in the art would recognize that a random distribution ofparticles will result in a variety of unpredictable sizes of AP, somebeing smaller than the intended wavelength and some being larger thanthe intended wavelength.

In FIG. 13, AP 1306 extends across the entire length of portion 1300 andrepresents an AP of a size much larger than average. This may imply thatthe size of AP 1306 is also much larger than the wavelength of energythat portion 1300 is intended to transport in the longitudinaldirection. Consequently, energy propagation through AP 1306 in thelongitudinal direction may experience scattering effects in thetransverse plane, reducing the Anderson Localization effect andresulting in interference patterns within energy propagating through AP1306 and a reduction in the overall energy transport efficiency ofportion 1300.

It should be understood that, according to the principles disclosedherein and due to the nature of randomized distributions, a sub-portionwithin portion 1100, such as sub-portion 1108 for example, may be ofarbitrary significance, since there is no defined distribution pattern.However, it should be apparent to one skilled in the art that in a givenrandomized distribution, there exists the possibility that one mayidentify distinct sub-portions that comprise the same or substantiallysimilar patterns of distribution. This occurrence may not significantlyinhibit the overall induced Transverse Anderson Localization effect, andthe scope of the present disclosure should not be seen as limited toexclude such cases.

The non-random, Ordered pattern design considerations disclosed hereinrepresent an alternative to a randomized distribution of componentmaterials, allowing energy relay materials to exhibit energylocalization effects in the transverse direction while avoiding thepotentially limiting deviant cases inherent to randomized distributions.

It should be noted that across different fields and throughout manydisciplines, the concept of “randomness,” and indeed the notions of whatis and is not random are not always clear. There are several importantpoints to consider in the context of the present disclosure whendiscussing random and non-random distributions, arrangements, patterns,et cetera, which are discussed below. However, it should be appreciatedthat the disclosures herein are by no means the only way toconceptualize and/or systematize the concepts of randomness ornon-randomness. Many alternate and equally valid conceptualizationsexist, and the scope of the present disclosure should not be seen aslimited to exclude any approach contemplated by one skilled in the artin the present context.

Complete spatial randomness (CSR), which is well-known in the art and isdescribed in Smith, T. E., (2016) Notebook on Spatial Data Analysis[online] (http://www.seas.upenn.edu/˜ese502/#notebook), which is hereinincorporated by reference, is a concept used to describe a distributionof points within a space (in this case, within a 2D plane) which arelocated in a completely random fashion. There are two commoncharacteristics used to describe CSR: The spatial Laplace principle, andthe assumption of statistical independence.

The spatial Laplace principle, which is an application of the moregeneral Laplace principle to the domain of spatial probabilityessentially states that, unless there is information to indicateotherwise, the chance of a particular event, which may be thought of asthe chance of a point being located in a particular location, is equallyas likely for each location within a space. That is to say, eachlocation within a region has an equal likelihood of containing a point,and therefore, the probability of finding a point is the same acrosseach location within the region. A further implication of this is thatthe probability of finding a point within a particular sub-region isproportional to the ratio of the area of that sub-region to the area ofthe entire reference region.

A second characteristic of CSR is the assumption of spatialindependence. This principle assumes that the locations of other datapoints within a region have no influence or effect on the probability offinding a data point at a particular location. In other words, the datapoints are assumed to be independent of one another, and the state ofthe “surrounding areas”, so to speak, do not affect the probability offinding a data point at a location within a reference region.

The concept of CSR is useful as a contrasting example of an ordereddistribution of materials, such as some embodiments of CES materialsdescribed herein. An Anderson material is described elsewhere in thisdisclosure as being a random distribution of energy propagationmaterials in a transverse plane of an energy relay. Keeping in mind theCSR characteristics described above, it is possible to apply theseconcepts to some of the embodiments of the Anderson materials describedherein in order to determine whether the “randomness” of those Andersonmaterial distributions complies with CSR. Assuming embodiments of anenergy relay comprising first and second materials, since a CES ofeither the first or second material may occupy roughly the same area inthe transverse plane of the embodiments (meaning they are roughly thesame size in the transverse dimension), and further since the first andsecond CES may be assumed to be provided in equal amounts in theembodiments, we can assume that for any particular location along thetransverse plane of the energy relay embodiments, there is an equallylikely chance of there being either a first CES or a second CES, inaccordance with spatial Laplace principle as applied in this context.Alternatively, if the relay materials are provided in differing amountsin other energy relay embodiments, or possess a differing transversesize from one another, we would likewise expect that the probability offinding either material be in proportion to the ratio of materialsprovided or to their relative sizes, in keeping with the spatial Laplaceprinciple.

Next, because both the first and second materials of Anderson energyrelay embodiments are arranged in a random manner (either by thoroughmechanical mixing, or other means), and further evidenced by the factthat the “arrangement” of the materials may occur simultaneously andarise spontaneously as they are randomized, we can assert that theidentities of neighboring CES materials will have substantially noeffect on the identity of a particular CES material, and vice versa, forthese embodiments. That is, the identities of CES materials within theseembodiments are independent of one another. Therefore, the Andersonmaterial embodiments described herein may be said to satisfy thedescribed CSR characteristics. Of course, as discussed above, the natureof external factors and “real-world” confounding factors may affect thecompliance of embodiments of Anderson energy relay materials with strictCSR definitions, but one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciatethat these Anderson material embodiments substantially fall withinreasonable tolerance of such definitions.

By contrast, an analysis of some of the Ordered Energy relay materialembodiments as disclosed herein highlights particular departures fromtheir counterpart Anderson material embodiments (and from CSR). Unlikean Anderson material, a CES material within an Ordered energy relayembodiment may not be unconcerned with the identities of its neighbors.The very pattern of the arrangement of CES materials within certainOrdered Energy relay embodiments is designed to, among other things,influence how similar materials are arranged spatially relative to oneanother in order to control the effective size of the APs formed by suchmaterials upon fusing. In other words, one of the goals of someembodiments which arrange materials in an Ordered distribution is toaffect the ultimate cross-sectional area (or size), in the transversedimension, of any region comprising a single material (an AP), in orderto, among other goals, limit the effects of transverse energy scatteringand interference within said regions as energy is relayed along alongitudinal direction. Therefore, some degree of specificity and/orselectivity is exercised when energy relay materials are first“arranged” in an Ordered distribution embodiment, which may disallow fora particular CES identity to be “independent” of the identity of otherCES, particularly those materials immediately surrounding it. On thecontrary, in certain embodiments materials are specifically chosen basedon a non-random pattern, with the identity of any one particular CESbeing determined based on a continuation of the pattern and in knowingwhat portion of the pattern (and thus, what materials) are alreadyarranged. It follows that these certain Ordered distribution energyrelay embodiments cannot comply with CSR criteria. Thus, in embodimentswherein the pattern or arrangement of two or more CES or energy relaymaterials is described as “non-random” or “substantially non-random”,what is implied may be, among other things, that the materials do notsubstantially comply with the general concept or characteristics of CSRas described, and in the context of the present disclosure, areconsidered an Ordered material distribution.

It is to be appreciated that, like a human signature, a non-randompattern may be considered as a non-random signal that includes noise.Non-random patterns may be substantially the same even when they are notidentical due to the inclusion of noise. A plethora of conventionaltechniques exist in pattern recognition and comparison that may be usedto separate noise and non-random signals and correlate the latter. Byway of example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,016,516 to Rhoades, which isincorporated by reference herein, describes a method of identifyingrandomness (noise, smoothness, snowiness, etc.), and correlatingnon-random signals to determine whether signatures are authentic. Rhodesnotes that computation of a signal's randomness is well understood byartisans in this field, and one example technique is to take thederivative of the signal at each sample point, square these values, andthen sum over the entire signal. Rhodes further notes that a variety ofother well-known techniques can alternatively be used. Conventionalpattern recognition filters and algorithms may be used to identify thesame non-random patterns. Examples are provided in U.S. Pat. Nos.5,465,308 and 7,054,850, all of which are incorporated by referenceherein. Other techniques of pattern recognition and comparison will notbe repeated here, but it is to be appreciated that one of ordinary skillin the art would easily apply existing techniques to determine whetheran energy relay comprises a plurality of repeating modules eachcomprising at least first and second materials being arranged in asubstantially non-random pattern, are in fact comprising the samesubstantially non-random pattern.

Furthermore, in view of the above-mentioned points regarding randomnessand noise, it should be appreciated that an arrangement of materialsinto a substantially non-random pattern may, due to unintentionalfactors such as mechanical inaccuracy or manufacturing variability,suffer from a distortion of the intended pattern. It would be apparentto one skilled in the art, however, that such distortions to anon-random pattern are largely unavoidable and are intrinsic to thenature of the mechanical arts. Thus, when considering an arrangement ofmaterials, it is within the capabilities of one such skilled in the artto distinguish a distorted portion of a pattern from an undistortedportion, just as one would identify two signatures as belonging to thesame person despite their unique differences.

FIG. 12A illustrates a cutaway view in the transverse plane of a portion1200 of a pre-fused energy relay comprising an ordered distribution ofthree component materials CES 1202, CES 1204, or CES 1206, which definemultiple modules with similar orientations. Particles of these three CESmaterials are arranged in repeating modules, such as module 1208 andmodule 1210, which share substantially invariant distributions of saidparticles. While portion 1200 comprises six modules as illustrated inFIG. 12A, the number of modules in a given ordered energy relay can beany number and may be chosen based on the desired design parameters.Additionally, the size of the modules, the number of particles permodule, the size of the individual particles within a module, thedistribution pattern of particles within a module, the number ofdifferent types of modules, and the inclusion of extra-modular orinterstitial materials may all be design parameters to be givenconsideration and fall within the scope of the present disclosure.

Similarly, the number of different CES's included within each moduleneed not be three as illustrated in FIG. 12A, but may preferably be anynumber suited to the desired design parameters. Furthermore, thedifferent characteristic properties possessed by each CES may bevariable so as to satisfy the desired design parameters, and differencesshould not be limited only to refractive index. For example, twodifferent CES's may possess substantially the same refractive index, butmay differ in their melting point temperatures.

In order to minimize the scattering of energy transported through theportion 1200 of the energy relay illustrated in FIG. 12A, and to promotetransverse energy localization, the ordered pattern of the modules thatcomprise portion 1200 may satisfy the Ordered distributioncharacteristics described above. In the context of the presentdisclosure, contiguous particles may be particles that are substantiallyadjacent to one another in the transverse plane. The particles may beillustrated to be touching one another, or there may be an empty spaceillustrated between the adjacent particles. One skilled in the art willappreciate that small gaps between adjacent illustrated particles areeither inadvertent artistic artifacts or are meant to illustrate theminute mechanical variations which can arise in real-world arrangementof materials. Furthermore, this disclosure also includes arrangements ofCES particles in substantially non-random patterns, but containexceptions due to manufacturing variations or intentional variation bydesign.

Ordered patterns of CES particles may allow for greater localization ofenergy, and reduce scattering of energy in a transverse directionthrough a relay material, and consequently allow for higher efficiencyof energy transport through the ordered material relative to otherembodiments. FIG. 12B illustrates a cutaway view in the transverse planeof a portion 1250 of a pre-fused energy relay comprising an ordereddistribution of particles comprising one of three component materials,CES 1202, CES 1204, or CES 1206, wherein the particles define multiplemodules with varying orientations. Modules 1258 and 1260 of portion 1250comprise an ordered distribution of materials similar to that of modules1208 and 1210 of FIG. 12A. However, the pattern of materials in module1260 are rotated relative to that of module 1258. Several other modulesof portion 1250 also exhibit a rotated pattern of distribution. It isimportant to note that despite this rotational arrangement, each modulewithin portion 1250 possesses the Ordered distribution described above,since the actual pattern of particle distribution within each moduleremains the same regardless of how much rotation is imposed upon it.

FIG. 14 illustrates a cutaway view in the transverse plane of a portion1400 of a fused energy relay comprising an ordered distribution ofparticles comprising one of three component materials, CES 1402, CES1404, or CES 1406. Portion 1400 may represent a possible fused form ofportion 1200 from FIG. 12A. By arranging CES particles in an Ordereddistribution, the relay shown in FIG. 14 may realize more efficienttransportation of energy in a longitudinal direction through the relayrelative to the randomized distribution shown in FIG. 13. By selectingCES particles with a diameter roughly ½ of the wavelength of energy tobe transported through the material and arranging them in a pre-fuseOrdered distribution shown in FIG. 12A, the size of the resultant AP'safter fusing seen in FIG. 14 may have a transverse dimension between ½and 2 times the wavelength of intended energy. By substantially limitingtransverse AP dimensions to within this range, energy transported in alongitudinal direction through the material may allow for ordered energylocalization and reduce scattering and interference effects. In anembodiment, a transverse dimension of AP's in a relay material maypreferably be between ¼ and 8 times the wavelength of energy intended tobe transported in a longitudinal direction through the APs.

As seen in FIG. 14, and in contrast with FIG. 13, there is notableconsistency of size across all APs, which may result from exertingcontrol over how pre-fused CES particles are arranged. Specifically,controlling the pattern of particle arrangement may reduce or eliminatethe formation of larger AP's which may lead to energy scattering andinterference patterns within the AP, representing an improvement overrandomized distributions of CES particles in energy relays.

FIG. 15 illustrates a cross-sectional view of a portion 1500 of anenergy relay comprising a randomized distribution of two different CESmaterials, CES 1502 and CES 1504. Portion 1500 is designed to transportenergy longitudinally along the vertical axis of the illustration, andcomprises a number of AP's distributed along the horizontal axis of theillustration in a transverse direction. AP 1510 may represent an averageAP size of all the AP's in portion 1500. As a result of randomizing thedistribution of CES particles prior to fusing of portion 1500, theindividual AP's that make up portion 1500 may substantially deviate fromthe average size shown by 1510. For example, AP 1508 is wider than AP1510 in the transverse direction by a significant amount. Consequently,energy transported through AP's 1510 and 1508 in the longitudinaldirection may experience noticeably different localization effects, aswell as differing amounts of wave scattering and interference. As aresult, upon reaching its relayed destination, any energy transportedthrough portion 1500 may exhibit differing levels of coherence, orvarying intensity across the transverse axis relative to its originalstate when entering portion 1500. Having energy emerge from a relay thatis in a significantly different state than when it entered said relaymay be undesirable for certain applications such as image lighttransport.

Additionally, AP 1506 shown in FIG. 15 may be substantially smaller inthe transverse direction than AP 1510. As a result, the transverse widthof AP 1506 may be too small for energy of a certain desired energywavelength domain to effectively propagate through, causing degradationof said energy and negatively affecting the performance of portion 1500in relaying said energy.

FIG. 16 illustrates a cross-sectional view of a portion 1600 of anenergy relay comprising an ordered distribution of three different CESmaterials, CES 1602, CES 1604, and CES 1606. Portion 1600 is designed totransport energy longitudinally along the vertical axis of theillustration, and comprises a number of AP's distributed along thehorizontal axis of the illustration in a transverse direction. AP 1610,comprising CES 1604, and AP 1608, comprising CES 1602, may both havesubstantially the same size in the transverse direction. All other AP'swithin portion 1600 may also substantially share a similar AP size inthe transverse direction. As a result, energy being transportedlongitudinally through portion 1600 may experience substantially uniformlocalization effects across the transverse axis of portion 1600, andsuffer reduced scattering and interference effects. By maintaining aconsistent AP width in the transverse dimension, energy which entersportion 1600 will be relayed and affected equally regardless of wherealong the transverse direction it enters portion 1600. This mayrepresent an improvement of energy transport over the randomizeddistribution demonstrated in FIG. 15 for certain applications such asimage light transport.

FIG. 17 illustrates a cross-sectional perspective view of a portion 1700of an energy relay comprising a randomized distribution of aggregatedparticles comprising one of two component materials, CES 1702 or CES1704. In FIG. 17, input energy 1706 is provided for transport throughportion 1700 in a longitudinal direction through the relay,corresponding with the vertical direction in the illustration asindicated by the arrows representing energy 1706. The energy 1706 isaccepted into portion 1700 at side 1710 and emerges from portion 1700 atside 1712 as energy 1708. Energy 1708 is illustrated as having varyingsizes and pattern of arrows which are intended to illustrate that energy1708 has undergone non-uniform transformation as it was transportedthrough portion 1700, and different portions of energy 1708 differ frominitial input energy 1706 by varying amounts in magnitude andlocalization in the transverse directions perpendicular to thelongitudinal energy direction 1706.

As illustrated in FIG. 17, there may exist an AP, such as AP 1714, thatpossesses a transverse size that is too small, or otherwise unsuited,for a desired energy wavelength to effectively propagate from side 1710through to side 1712. Similarly, an AP such as AP 1716 may exist that istoo large, or otherwise unsuited, for a desired energy wavelength toeffectively propagate from side 1710 through to side 1712. The combinedeffect of this variation in energy propagation properties across portion1700, which may be a result of the randomized distribution of CESparticles used to form portion 1700, may limit the efficacy andusefulness of portion 1700 as an energy relay material.

FIG. 18 illustrates a cross-sectional perspective view of a portion 1800of an energy relay comprising an ordered distribution of aggregatedparticles comprising one of three component materials, CES 1802, CES1804, or CES 1806. In FIG. 18, input energy 1808 is provided fortransport through portion 1800 in a longitudinal direction through therelay, corresponding with the vertical direction in the illustration asindicated by the arrows representing energy 1808. The energy 1808 isaccepted into portion 1800 at side 1812 and is relayed to and emergesfrom side 1814 as energy 1810. As illustrated in FIG. 18, output energy1810 may have substantially uniform properties across the transversedirection of portion 1800. Furthermore, input energy 1808 and outputenergy 1810 may share substantially invariant properties, such aswavelength, intensity, resolution, or any other wave propagationproperties. This may be due to the uniform size and distribution of AP'salong the transverse direction of portion 1800, allowing energy at eachpoint along the transverse direction to propagate through portion 1800in a commonly affected manner, which may help limit any variance acrossemergent energy 1810, and between input energy 1808 and emergent energy1810.

Tapered Energy Relays

In order to further solve the challenge of generating high resolutionfrom an array of individual energy wave sources containing extendedmechanical envelopes, the use of tapered energy relays can be employedto increase the effective size of each energy source. An array oftapered energy relays can be stitched together to form a singularcontiguous energy surface, circumventing the limitation of mechanicalrequirements for those energy sources.

In an embodiment, the one or more energy relay elements may beconfigured to direct energy along propagation paths which extend betweenthe one or more energy locations and the singular seamless energysurface.

For example, if an energy wave source's active area is 20 mm×10 mm andthe mechanical envelope is 40 mm×20 mm, a tapered energy relay may bedesigned with a magnification of 2:1 to produce a taper that is 20 mm×10mm (when cut) on the minified end and 40 mm×20 mm (when cut) on themagnified end, providing the ability to align an array of these taperstogether seamlessly without altering or violating the mechanicalenvelope of each energy wave source.

FIG. 29 illustrates an orthogonal view of one such tapered energy relaymosaic arrangement 7400, in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent disclosure. In FIG. 29, the relay device 7400 may include two ormore relay elements 7402, each relay element 7402 formed of one or morestructures, each relay element 7402 having a first surface 7406, asecond surface 7408, a transverse orientation (generally parallel to thesurfaces 7406, 7408) and a longitudinal orientation (generallyperpendicular to the surfaces 7406, 7408). The surface area of the firstsurface 7406 may be different than the surface area of the secondsurface 7408. For relay element 7402, the surface area of the firstsurface 7406 is less than the surface area of the second surface 7408.In another embodiment, the surface area of the first surface 7406 may bethe same or greater than the surface area of the second surface 7408.Energy waves can pass from the first surface 7406 to the second surface7408, or vice versa.

In FIG. 29, the relay element 7402 of the relay element device 7400includes a sloped profile portion 7404 between the first surface 7406and the second surface 7408. In operation, energy waves propagatingbetween the first surface 7406 and the second surface 7408 may have ahigher transport efficiency in the longitudinal orientation than in thetransverse orientation, and energy waves passing through the relayelement 7402 may result in spatial magnification or spatialde-magnification. In other words, energy waves passing through the relayelement 7402 of the relay element device 7400 may experience increasedmagnification or decreased magnification. In an embodiment, energy maybe directed through the one or more energy relay elements with zeromagnification. In some embodiments, the one or more structures forforming relay element devices may include glass, carbon, optical fiber,optical film, plastic, polymer, or mixtures thereof.

In one embodiment, the energy waves passing through the first surfacehave a first resolution, while the energy waves passing through thesecond surface have a second resolution, and the second resolution is noless than about 50% of the first resolution. In another embodiment, theenergy waves, while having a uniform profile when presented to the firstsurface, may pass through the second surface radiating in everydirection with an energy density in the forward direction thatsubstantially fills a cone with an opening angle of +/−10 degreesrelative to the normal to the second surface, irrespective of locationon the second relay surface.

In some embodiments, the first surface may be configured to receiveenergy from an energy wave source, the energy wave source including amechanical envelope having a width different than the width of at leastone of the first surface and the second surface.

In an embodiment, energy may be transported between first and secondsurfaces which defines the longitudinal orientation, the first andsecond surfaces of each of the relays extends generally along atransverse orientation defined by the first and second directions, wherethe longitudinal orientation is substantially normal to the transverseorientation. In an embodiment, energy waves propagating through theplurality of relays have higher transport efficiency in the longitudinalorientation than in the transverse orientation and are spatiallylocalized in the transverse plane due to randomized refractive indexvariability in the transverse orientation coupled with minimalrefractive index variation in the longitudinal orientation via theprinciple of Transverse Anderson Localization. In some embodiments whereeach relay is constructed of multicore fiber, the energy wavespropagating within each relay element may travel in the longitudinalorientation determined by the alignment of fibers in this orientation.

Mechanically, these tapered energy relays are cut and polished to a highdegree of accuracy before being bonded or fused together in order toalign them and ensure that the smallest possible seam gap between therelays. The seamless surface formed by the second surfaces of energyrelays is polished after the relays are bonded. In one such embodiment,using an epoxy that is thermally matched to the taper material, it ispossible to achieve a maximum seam gap of 50 um. In another embodiment,a manufacturing process that places the taper array under compressionand/or heat provides the ability to fuse the elements together. Inanother embodiment, the use of plastic tapers can be more easilychemically fused or heat-treated to create the bond without additionalbonding. For the avoidance of doubt, any methodology may be used to bondthe array together, to explicitly include no bond other than gravityand/or force.

In an embodiment, a separation between the edges of any two adjacentsecond surfaces of the terminal energy relay elements may be less than aminimum perceptible contour as defined by the visual acuity of a humaneye having 20/40 vision at a distance from the seamless energy surfacethat is the lesser of a height of the singular seamless energy surfaceor a width of the singular seamless energy surface.

A mechanical structure may be preferable in order to hold the multiplecomponents in a fashion that meets a certain tolerance specification. Insome embodiments, the first and second surfaces of tapered relayelements can have any polygonal shapes including without limitationcircular, elliptical, oval, triangular, square, rectangle,parallelogram, trapezoidal, diamond, pentagon, hexagon, and so forth. Insome examples, for non-square tapers, such as rectangular tapers forexample, the relay elements may be rotated to have the minimum taperdimension parallel to the largest dimensions of the overall energysource. This approach allows for the optimization of the energy sourceto exhibit the lowest rejection of rays of light due to the acceptancecone of the magnified relay element as when viewed from center point ofthe energy source. For example, if the desired energy source size is 100mm by 60 mm and each tapered energy relay is 20 mm by 10 mm, the relayelements may be aligned and rotated such that an array of 3 by 10 taperenergy relay elements may be combined to produce the desired energysource size. Nothing here should suggest that an array with analternative configuration of an array of 6 by 5 matrix, among othercombinations, could not be utilized. The array comprising of a 3×10layout generally will perform better than the alternative 6×5 layout.

Energy Relay Element Stacks

While the most simplistic formation of an energy source system comprisesof an energy source bonded to a single tapered energy relay element,multiple relay elements may be coupled to form a single energy sourcemodule with increased quality or flexibility. One such embodimentincludes a first tapered energy relay with the minified end attached tothe energy source, and a second tapered energy relay connected to thefirst relay element, with the minified end of the second optical taperin contact with the magnified end of the first relay element, generatinga total magnification equal to the product of the two individual tapermagnifications. This is an example of an energy relay element stackcomprising of a sequence of two or more energy relay elements, with eachenergy relay element comprising a first side and a second side, thestack relaying energy from the first surface of the first element to thesecond surface of the last element in the sequence, also named theterminal surface. Each energy relay element may be configured to directenergy therethrough.

In an embodiment, an energy directing device comprises one or moreenergy locations and one or more energy relay element stacks. Eachenergy relay element stack comprises one or more energy relay elements,with each energy relay element comprising a first surface and a secondsurface. Each energy relay element may be configured to direct energytherethrough. In an embodiment, the second surfaces of terminal energyrelay elements of each energy relay element stack may be arranged toform a singular seamless display surface. In an embodiment, the one ormore energy relay element stacks may be configured to direct energyalong energy propagation paths which extend between the one or moreenergy locations and the singular seamless display surfaces.

FIG. 30 illustrates a side view of an energy relay element stack 7500consisting of two compound optical relay tapers 7502, 7504 in series,both tapers with minified ends facing an energy source surface 7506, inaccordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. In FIG. 30, theinput numerical aperture (NA) is 1.0 for the input of taper 7504, butonly about 0.16 for the output of taper 7502. Notice that the outputnumerical aperture gets divided by the total magnification of 6, whichis the product of 2 for taper 7504, and 3 for taper 7502. One advantageof this approach is the ability to customize the first energy wave relayelement to account for various dimensions of energy source withoutalteration of the second energy wave relay element. It additionallyprovides the flexibility to alter the size of the output energy surfacewithout changing the design of the energy source or the first relayelement. Also shown in FIG. 30 is the energy source 7506 and themechanical envelope 7508 containing the energy source drive electronics.

In an embodiment, the first surface may be configured to receive energywaves from an energy source unit (e.g., 7506), the energy source unitincluding a mechanical envelope having a width different than the widthof at least one of the first surface and the second surface. In oneembodiment, the energy waves passing through the first surface may havea first resolution, while the energy waves passing through the secondsurface may have a second resolution, such that the second resolution isno less than about 50% of the first resolution. In another embodiment,the energy waves, while having a uniform profile when presented to thefirst surface, may pass through the second surface radiating in everydirection with an energy density in the forward direction thatsubstantially fills a cone with an opening angle of +/−10 degreesrelative to the normal to the second surface, irrespective of locationon the second relay surface.

In one embodiment, the plurality of energy relay elements in the stackedconfiguration may include a plurality of faceplates (relays with unitymagnification). In some embodiments, the plurality of faceplates mayhave different lengths or are loose coherent optical relays. In otherembodiments, the plurality of elements may have sloped profile portions,where the sloped profile portions may be angled, linear, curved,tapered, faceted or aligned at a non-perpendicular angle relative to anormal axis of the relay element. In yet another embodiment, energywaves propagating through the plurality of relay elements have highertransport efficiency in the longitudinal orientation than in thetransverse orientation and are spatially localized in the transverseorientation due to randomized refractive index variability in thetransverse orientation coupled with minimal refractive index variationin the longitudinal orientation. In embodiments where each energy relayis constructed of multicore fiber, the energy waves propagating withineach relay element may travel in the longitudinal orientation determinedby the alignment of fibers in this orientation.

Optical Image Relay and Taper Elements

Extremely dense fiber bundles can be manufactured with a plethora ofmaterials to enable light to be relayed with pixel coherency and hightransmission. Optical fibers provide the guidance of light alongtransparent fibers of glass, plastic, or a similar medium. Thisphenomenon is controlled by a concept called total internal reflection.A ray of light will be totally internally reflected between twotransparent optical materials with a different index of refraction whenthe ray is contained within the critical angle of the material and theray is incident from the direction of the more dense material.

FIG. 31 illustrates an orthogonal view of fundamental principles ofinternal reflection 7600 detailing a maximum acceptance angle Ø7608 (orNA of the material), core 7612 and clad 7602 materials with differingrefractive indices, and reflected 7604 and refracted 7610 rays. Ingeneral, the transmission of light decreases by less than 0.001 percentper reflection and a fiber that is about 50 microns in diameter may have3,000 reflections per foot, which is helpful to understand how efficientthat light transmission may be as compared to other compound opticalmethodologies.

One can calculate the relationship between the angle of incidence (I)and the angle of refraction (R) with Snell's law:

${\frac{\sin\mspace{14mu}\theta_{I}}{\sin\mspace{14mu}\theta_{R}} = \frac{n_{2}}{n_{1}}},$where n₁ is the index of refraction of air and n₂ as the index ofrefraction of the core material 7612.

One skilled at the art of fiber optics will understand the additionaloptical principles associated with light gathering power, maximum angleof acceptance, and other required calculations to understand how lighttravels through the optical fiber materials. It is important tounderstand this concept, as the optical fiber materials should beconsidered a relay of light rather than a methodology to focus light aswill be described within the following embodiments.

Understanding the angular distribution of light that exits the opticalfiber is important to this disclosure, and may not be the same as wouldbe expected based upon the incident angle. Because the exit azimuthalangle of the ray 7610 tends to vary rapidly with the maximum acceptanceangle 7608, the length and diameter of the fiber, as well as the otherparameters of the materials, the emerging rays tend to exit the fiber asa conical shape as defined by the incident and refracted angles.

FIG. 32 demonstrates how a ray of light 7702 entering an optical fiber7704 may exit in a conical shape distribution of light 7706 with aspecific azimuthal angle Ø. This effect may be observed by shining alaser pointer through a fiber and view the output ray at variousdistances and angles on a surface. The conical shape of exit with adistribution of light across the entire conical region (e.g., not onlythe radius of the conical shape) which will be an important conceptmoving forward with the designs proposed.

The main source for transmission loss in fiber materials are cladding,length of material, and loss of light for rays outside of the acceptanceangle. The cladding is the material that surrounds each individual fiberwithin the larger bundle to insulate the core and help mitigate rays oflight from traveling between individual fibers. In addition to this,additional opaque materials may be used to absorb light outside ofacceptance angle called extra mural absorption (EMA). Both materials canhelp improve viewed image quality in terms of contrast, scatter and anumber of other factors, but may reduce the overall light transmissionfrom entry to exit. For simplicity, the percent of core to clad can beused to understand the approximate transmission potential of the fiber,as this may be one of the reasons for the loss of light. In mostmaterials, the core to clad ratio may be in the range of approximatelyabout 50% to about 80%, although other types of materials may beavailable and will be explored in the below discussion.

Each fiber may be capable of resolving approximately 0.5 photographicline pairs per fiber diameter, thus when relaying pixels, it may beimportant to have more than a single fiber per pixel. In someembodiments, a dozen or so per pixel may be utilized, or three or morefibers may be acceptable, as the average resolution between each of thefibers helps mitigate the associate MTF loss when leveraging thesematerials.

In one embodiment, optical fiber may be implemented in the form of afiber optic faceplate. A faceplate is a collection of single or multi,or multi-multi fibers, fused together to form a vacuum-tight glassplate. This plate can be considered a theoretically zero-thicknesswindow as the image presented to one side of the faceplate may betransported to the external surface with high efficiency. Traditionally,these faceplates may be constructed with individual fibers with a pitchof about 6 microns or larger, although higher density may be achievedalbeit at the effectiveness of the cladding material which mayultimately reduce contrast and image quality.

In some embodiments, an optical fiber bundle may be tapered resulting ina coherent mapping of pixels with different sizes and commensuratemagnification of each surface. For example, the magnified end may referto the side of the optical fiber element with the larger fiber pitch andhigher magnification, and the minified end may refer to the side of theoptical fiber element with the smaller fiber pitch and lowermagnification. The process of producing various shapes may involveheating and fabrication of the desired magnification, which mayphysically alter the original pitch of the optical fibers from theiroriginal size to a smaller pitch thus changing the angles of acceptance,depending on location on the taper and NA. Another factor is that thefabrication process can skew the perpendicularity of fibers to the flatsurfaces. One of the challenges with a taper design, among others, isthat the effective NA of each end may change approximately proportionalto the percentage of magnification. For example, a taper with a 2:1ratio may have a minified end with a diameter of 10 mm and a magnifiedend with a diameter of 20 mm. If the original material had an NA of 0.5with a pitch of 10 microns, the minified end will have an approximatelyeffective NA of 1.0 and pitch of 5 microns. The resulting acceptance andexit angles may change proportionally as well. There is far more complexanalysis that can be performed to understand the exacting results fromthis process and anyone skilled in the art will be able to perform thesecalculations. For the purposes of this discussion, these generalizationsare sufficient to understand the imaging implications as well as overallsystems and methods.

Use of Flexible Energy Sources and Curved Energy Relay Surfaces

It may be possible to manufacture certain energy source technologies orenergy projection technologies with curved surfaces. For example, in oneembodiment, for a source of energy, a curved OLED display panel may beused. In another embodiment, for a source of energy, a focus-free laserprojection system may be utilized. In yet another embodiment, aprojection system with a sufficiently wide depth of field to maintainfocus across the projected surface may be employed. For the avoidance ofdoubt, these examples are provided for exemplary purposes and in no waylimit the scope of technological implementations for this description oftechnologies.

Given the ability for optical technologies to produce a steered cone oflight based upon the chief ray angle (CRA) of the optical configuration,by leveraging a curved energy surface, or a curved surface that mayretain a fully focused projected image with known input angles of lightand respective output modified angles may provide a more idealizedviewed angle of light.

In one such embodiment, the energy surface side of the optical relayelement may be curved in a cylindrical, spherical, planar, or non-planarpolished configuration (herein referred to as “geometry” or “geometric”)on a per module basis, where the energy source originates from one moresource modules. Each effective light-emitting energy source has its ownrespective viewing angle that is altered through the process ofdeformation. Leveraging this curved energy source or similar paneltechnology allows for panel technology that may be less susceptible todeformation and a reconfiguration of the CRA or optimal viewing angle ofeach effective pixel.

FIG. 33 illustrates an orthogonal view of an optical relay taperconfiguration 7800 with a 3:1 magnification factor and the resultingviewed angle of light of an attached energy source, in accordance withone embodiment of the present disclosure. The optical relay taper has aninput NA of 1.0 with a 3:1 magnification factor resulting in aneffective NA for output rays of approximately 0.33 (there are many otherfactors involved here, this is for simplified reference only), withplanar and perpendicular surfaces on either end of the tapered energyrelay, and an energy source attached to the minified end. Leveragingthis approach alone, the angle of view of the energy surface may beapproximately ⅓ of that of the input angle. For the avoidance of doubt,a similar configuration with an effective magnification of 1:1(leveraging an optical faceplate or otherwise) may additionally beleveraged, or any other optical relay type or configuration.

FIG. 34 illustrates the same tapered energy relay module 7900 as that ofFIG. 33 but now with a surface on an energy source side having a curvedgeometric configuration 7902 while a surface opposite an energy sourceside 7903 having a planar surface and perpendicular to an optical axisof the module 7900. With this approach, the input angles (e.g., seearrows near 7902) may be biased based upon this geometry, and the outputangles (e.g., see arrows near 7903) may be tuned to be more independentof location on the surface, different than that of FIG. 33, given thecurved surface 7902 as exemplified in FIG. 34, although the viewableexit cone of each effective light emission source on surface 7903 may beless than the viewable exit cone of the energy source input on surface7902. This may be advantageous when considering a specific energysurface that optimizes the viewed angles of light for wider or morecompressed density of available rays of light.

In another embodiment, variation in output angle may be achieved bymaking the input energy surface 7902 convex in shape. If such a changewere made, the output cones of light near the edge of the energy surface7903 would turn in toward the center.

In some embodiments, the relay element device may include a curvedenergy surface. In one example, both the surfaces of the relay elementdevice may be planar. Alternatively, in other examples, one surface maybe planar and the other surface may be non-planar, or vice versa.Finally, in another example, both the surfaces of the relay elementdevice may be non-planar. In other embodiments, a non-planar surface maybe a concave surface or a convex surface, among other non-planarconfigurations. For example, both surfaces of the relay element may beconcave. In the alternative, both surfaces may be convex. In anotherexample, one surface may be concave and the other may be convex. It willbe understood by one skilled in the art that multiple configurations ofplanar, non-planar, convex and concave surfaces are contemplated anddisclosed herein.

FIG. 35 illustrates an orthogonal view of an optical relay taper 8000with a non-perpendicular but planar surface 8002 on the energy sourceside, in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure.To articulate the significant customizable variation in the energysource side geometries, FIG. 35 illustrates the result of simplycreating a non-perpendicular but planar geometry for the energy sourceside for comparison to FIG. 34 and to further demonstrate the ability todirectly control the input acceptance cone angle and the output viewableemission cone angles of light 1, 2, 3 that are possible with anyvariation in surface characteristics.

Depending on the application, it may also be possible to design anenergy relay configuration with the energy source side of the relayremaining perpendicular to the optical axis that defines the directionof light propagation within the relay, and the output surface of therelay being non-perpendicular to the optical axis. Other configurationsmay have both the input energy source side and the energy output sideexhibiting various non-perpendicular geometric configurations. With thismethodology, it may be possible to further increase control over theinput and output energy source viewed angles of light.

In some embodiments, tapers may also be non-perpendicular to the opticalaxis of the relay to optimize a particular view angle. In one suchembodiment, a single taper such as the one shown in FIG. 33 may be cutinto quadrants by cuts parallel with the optical axis, with the largeend and small end of the tapers cut into four equal portions. These fourquadrants and then re-assembled with each taper quadrant rotated aboutthe individual optical center axis by 180 degrees to have the minifiedend of the taper facing away from the center of the re-assembledquadrants thus optimizing the field of view. In other embodiments,non-perpendicular tapers may also be manufactured directly as well toprovide increased clearance between energy sources on the minified endwithout increasing the size or scale of the physical magnified end.These and other tapered configurations are disclosed herein.

FIG. 36 illustrates an orthogonal view of the optical relay and lightillumination cones of FIG. 33 with a concave surface on the side of theenergy source. In this case, the cones of output light are significantlymore diverged near the edges of the output energy surface plane than ifthe energy source side were flat, in comparison with FIG. 33.

FIG. 37 illustrates an orthogonal view of the optical taper relay 8200and light illumination cones of FIG. 36 with the same concave surface onthe side of the energy source. In this example, the output energysurface 8202 has a convex geometry. Compared to FIG. 36, the cones ofoutput light on the concave output surface 8202 are more collimatedacross the energy source surface due to the input acceptances cones andthe exit cone of light produced from this geometric configuration. Forthe avoidance of doubt, the provided examples are illustrative only andnot intended to dictate explicit surface characteristics, since anygeometric configuration for the input energy source side and the outputenergy surface may be employed depending on the desired angle of viewand density of light for the output energy surface, and the angle oflight produced from the energy source itself.

In some embodiments, multiple relay elements may be configured inseries. In one embodiment, any two relay elements in series mayadditionally be coupled together with intentionally distorted parameterssuch that the inverse distortions from one element in relation toanother help optically mitigate any such artifacts. In anotherembodiment, a first optical taper exhibits optical barrel distortions,and a second optical taper may be manufactured to exhibit the inverse ofthis artifact, to produce optical pin cushion distortions, such thanwhen aggregated together, the resultant information either partially orcompletely cancels any such optical distortions introduced by any one ofthe two elements. This may additionally be applicable to any two or moreelements such that compound corrections may be applied in series.

In some embodiments, it may be possible to manufacturer a single energysource board, electronics, and/or the like to produce an array of energysources and the like in a small and/or lightweight form factor. Withthis arrangement, it may be feasible to further incorporate an opticalrelay mosaic such that the ends of the optical relays align to theenergy source active areas with an extremely small form factor bycomparison to individual components and electronics. Using thistechnique, it may be feasible to accommodate small form factor deviceslike monitors, smart phones and the like.

FIG. 38 illustrates an orthogonal view of an assembly 8300 of multipleoptical taper relay modules 8304, 8306, 8308, 8310, 8312 coupledtogether with curved energy source side surfaces 8314, 8316, 8318, 8320,8322, respectively, to form an optimal viewable image 8302 from aplurality of perpendicular output energy surfaces of each taper, inaccordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. In thisinstance, the taper relay modules 8304, 8306, 8308, 8310, 8312 areformed in parallel. Although only a single row of taper relay modules isshown, in some embodiments, tapers with a stacked configuration may alsobe coupled together in parallel and in a row to form a contiguous,seamless viewable image 8302.

In FIG. 38, each taper relay module may operate independently or bedesigned based upon an array of optical relays. As shown in this figure,five modules with optical taper relays 8304, 8306, 8308, 8310, 8312 arealigned together producing a larger optical taper output energy surface8302. In this configuration, the output energy surface 8302 may beperpendicular to the optical axis of each relay, and each of the fiveenergy source sides 8314, 8316, 8318, 8320, 8322 may be deformed in acircular contour about a center axis that may lie in front of the outputenergy surface 8302, or behind this surface, allowing the entire arrayto function as a single output energy surface rather than as individualmodules. It may additionally be possible to optimize this assemblystructure 8300 further by computing the output viewed angle of light anddetermining the ideal surface characteristics required for the energysource side geometry. FIG. 38 illustrates one such embodiment wheremultiple modules are coupled together and the energy source sidecurvature accounts for the larger output energy surface viewed angles oflight. Although five relay modules 8304, 8306, 8308, 8310, 8312 areshown, it will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that more orfewer relay modules may be coupled together depending on theapplication, and these may be coupled together in two dimensions to forman arbitrarily large output energy surface 8302.

In one embodiment, the system of FIG. 38 includes a plurality of relayelements 8304, 8306, 8308, 8310, 8312 arranged across first and seconddirections (e.g., across a row or in stacked configuration), where eachof the plurality of relay elements extends along a longitudinalorientation between first and second surfaces of the respective relayelement. In some embodiments, the first and second surfaces of each ofthe plurality of relay elements extends generally along a transverseorientation defined by the first and second directions, wherein thelongitudinal orientation is substantially normal to the transverseorientation. In other embodiments, randomized refractive indexvariability in the transverse orientation coupled with minimalrefractive index variation in the longitudinal orientation results inenergy waves having substantially higher transport efficiency along thelongitudinal orientation, and spatial localization along the transverseorientation.

In one embodiment, the plurality of relay elements may be arrangedacross the first direction or the second direction to form a singletiled surface along the first direction or the second direction,respectively. In some embodiments, the plurality of relay elements arearranged in a matrix having at least a 2×2 configuration, or in othermatrices including without limitation a 3×3 configuration, a 4×4configuration, a 3×10 configuration, and other configurations as can beappreciated by one skilled in the art. In other embodiments, seamsbetween the single tiled surface may be imperceptible at a viewingdistance of twice a minimum dimension of the single tiled surface.

In some embodiments, each of the plurality of relay elements (e.g. 8304,8306, 8308, 8310, 8312) have randomized refractive index variability inthe transverse orientation coupled with minimal refractive indexvariation in the longitudinal orientation, resulting in energy waveshaving substantially higher transport efficiency along the longitudinalorientation, and spatial localization along the transverse orientation.In some embodiments where the relay is constructed of multicore fiber,the energy waves propagating within each relay element may travel in thelongitudinal orientation determined by the alignment of fibers in thisorientation.

In other embodiments, each of the plurality of relay elements (e.g.8304, 8306, 8308, 8310, 8312) is configured to transport energy alongthe longitudinal orientation, and wherein the energy waves propagatingthrough the plurality of relay elements have higher transport efficiencyin the longitudinal orientation than in the transverse orientation dueto the randomized refractive index variability such that the energy islocalized in the transverse orientation. In some embodiments, the energywaves propagating between the relay elements may travel substantiallyparallel to the longitudinal orientation due to the substantially highertransport efficiency in the longitudinal orientation than in thetransverse orientation. In other embodiments, randomized refractiveindex variability in the transverse orientation coupled with minimalrefractive index variation in the longitudinal orientation results inenergy waves having substantially higher transport efficiency along thelongitudinal orientation, and spatial localization along the transverseorientation.

FIG. 39 illustrates an orthogonal view of an arrangement 8400 ofmultiple optical taper relay modules coupled together with perpendicularenergy source side geometries 8404, 8406, 8408, 8410, and 8412, and aconvex energy source surface 8402 that is radial about a center axis, inaccordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 39illustrates a modification of the configuration shown in FIG. 38, withperpendicular energy source side geometries and a convex output energysurface that is radial about a center axis.

FIG. 40 illustrates an orthogonal view of an arrangement 8500 ofmultiple optical relay modules coupled together with perpendicularoutput energy surface 8502 and a convex energy source side surface 8504radial about a center axis, in accordance with another embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

In some embodiments, by configuring the source side of the array ofenergy relays in a cylindrically curved shape about a center radius, andhaving a flat energy output surface, the input energy source acceptanceangle and the output energy source emission angles may be decoupled, andit may be possible to better align each energy source module to theenergy relay acceptance cone, which may itself be limited due toconstraints on parameters such as energy taper relay magnification, NA,and other factors.

FIG. 41 illustrates an orthogonal view of an arrangement 8600 ofmultiple energy relay modules with each energy output surfaceindependently configured such that the viewable output rays of light, inaccordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 41illustrates the configuration similar to that of FIG. 40, but with eachenergy relay output surface independently configured such that theviewable output rays of light are emitted from the combined outputenergy surface with a more uniform angle with respect to the opticalaxis (or less depending on the exact geometries employed).

FIG. 42 illustrates an orthogonal view of an arrangement 8700 ofmultiple optical relay modules where both the emissive energy sourceside and the energy relay output surface are configured with variousgeometries producing explicit control over the input and output rays oflight, in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. Tothis end, FIG. 42 illustrates a configuration with five modules whereboth the emissive energy source side and the relay output surface areconfigured with curved geometries allowing greater control over theinput and output rays of light.

FIG. 43 illustrates an orthogonal view of an arrangement 8800 ofmultiple optical relay modules whose individual output energy surfaceshave been ground to form a seamless concave cylindrical energy sourcesurface which surrounds the viewer, with the source ends of the relaysflat and each bonded to an energy source.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 43, and similarly in the embodimentsshown in FIGS. 81, 82, 83, 84 and 85, a system may include a pluralityof energy relays arranged across first and second directions, where ineach of the relays, energy is transported between first and secondsurfaces which defines the longitudinal orientation, the first andsecond surfaces of each of the relays extends generally along atransverse orientation defined by the first and second directions, wherethe longitudinal orientation is substantially normal to the transverseorientation. Also in this embodiment, energy waves propagating throughthe plurality of relays have higher transport efficiency in thelongitudinal orientation than in the transverse orientation due to highrefractive index variability in the transverse orientation coupled withminimal refractive index variation in the longitudinal orientation. Insome embodiments where each relay is constructed of multicore fiber, theenergy waves propagating within each relay element may travel in thelongitudinal orientation determined by the alignment of fibers in thisorientation.

In one embodiment, similar to that discussed above, the first and secondsurfaces of each of the plurality of relay elements, in general, cancurve along the transverse orientation and the plurality of relayelements can be integrally formed across the first and seconddirections. The plurality of relays can be assembled across the firstand second directions, arranged in a matrix having at least a 2×2configuration, and include glass, optical fiber, optical film, plastic,polymer, or mixtures thereof. In some embodiments, a system of aplurality of relays may be arranged across the first direction or thesecond direction to form a single tiled surface along the firstdirection or the second direction, respectively. Like above, theplurality of relay elements can be arranged in other matrices includingwithout limitation a 3×3 configuration, a 4×4 configuration, a 3×10configuration, and other configurations as can be appreciated by oneskilled in the art. In other embodiments, seams between the single tiledsurface may be imperceptible at a viewing distance of twice a minimumdimension of the single tiled surface.

For a mosaic of energy relays, the following embodiments may beincluded: both the first and second surfaces may be planar, one of thefirst and second surfaces may be planar and the other non-planar, orboth the first and second surfaces may be non-planar. In someembodiments, both the first and second surfaces may be concave, one ofthe first and second surfaces may be concave and the other convex, orboth the first and second surfaces may be convex. In other embodiments,at least one of the first and second surfaces may be planar, non-planar,concave or convex. Surfaces that are planar may be perpendicular to thelongitudinal direction of energy transport, or non-perpendicular to thisoptical axis.

In some embodiments, the plurality of relays can cause spatialmagnification or spatial de-magnification of energy sources, includingbut not limited to electromagnetic waves, light waves, acoustical waves,among other types of energy waves. In other embodiments, the pluralityof relays may also include a plurality of energy relays (e.g., such asfaceplates for energy source), with the plurality of energy relayshaving different widths, lengths, among other dimensions. In someembodiments, the plurality of energy relays may also include loosecoherent optical relays or fibers.

Multi-Energy Domain Transmission

During any stage of the manufacturing process of an energy relaymaterial, it is possible to introduce a processing step to effectivelyallow the relay material to then transport energy belonging to two ormore substantially different energy domains. This may involve addingsecondary patterning, secondary structures, or other material or designmodifications, to a relay material.

In an embodiment, an energy domain may refer to the range of wavelengthsof electromagnetic energy that may be effectively propagated through amaterial. Thus different energy domains may refer to different ranges ofwavelengths of electromagnetic energy. Various establishedelectromagnetic energy domains and energy sub-domains are well known tothose skilled in the art. Additionally, in an embodiment, energy domainmay refer to a type of energy, such as electromagnetic energy, acousticenergy, tactile or vibrational energy, etc., which propagate viadifferent physical phenomena. The scope of the present disclosure shouldnot be seen as limited to only one type of energy, nor to a singleenergy wavelength or magnitude, or a single range of wavelengths ormagnitudes.

FIG. 23A illustrates a cutaway view on the transverse plane of anordered energy relay 2300 capable of transporting energy of multipleenergy domains. In FIG. 23A, energy relay 2300 comprises two distincttypes of energy transport material: material 2301 and material 2302.Materials 2301 and 2302 may be designed such that material 2301comprises particles, such as particles 2304, of a certain sizeconfigured to localize energy falling within a first energy domain, andmaterial 2302 comprises particles, such as particles 2303, of a certainsize configured to localize energy falling within a second energydomain, different from the first energy domain. In an embodiment, therelay material 2301 transmits mechanical energy in the form ofultrasound waves, and relay material 2302 transmits electromagneticenergy in the form of visible electromagnetic energy. In otherembodiments, it is possible that there exists any number of energy relaymaterials which act to transport energy. In other embodiments, the oneor more energy transport materials are made of a random distribution ofcomponent engineered structures (CES), and thus exhibit TransverseAnderson Localization of energy. In different embodiments, like the oneshown in FIG. 23A, one or more relays is constructed with CES arrangedin an Ordered distribution, and thus exhibits Ordered EnergyLocalization, as described earlier in this disclosure. It should beappreciated that multiple energy domain relays may be constructed sothat each relay material may exhibit either Anderson Localization orOrdered Energy Localization. Furthermore, in other embodiments, it ispossible to have relays with both transport mechanisms. In oneembodiment, there is one type reserved for each energy domain, or eachenergy transport direction for a given energy domain.

In an embodiment, materials 2301 and 2302 may be designed such thatenergy falling within a first energy domain will pass through material2301 and reflect off of material 2302, and energy falling within asecond energy domain, different than the first energy domain, will passthrough material 2302 and reflect off of material 2301.

Materials 2301 and 2302 may, in certain embodiments, be the samematerial but possess substantially different sizes in order to achievethe desired energy domain selection. If, in the manufacturing process,the size of a given energy relay material is to be reduced, afterreduction a larger sized material may be introduced into the energyrelay, which may then undergo all subsequent processing steps and resultin a relay with selectivity for energy propagation in two or moredifferent energy domains.

The multiple energy domain relay shown in FIG. 23A can be leveraged toconstruct an energy surface which comprises energy locations to beclosely interleaved, preserving the spatial resolution of each type ofenergy that may be transported by the relay. For example, in anembodiment where material 2301 transports ultrasound energy, andmaterial 2302 transports electromagnetic energy in the form of an image,the image may be transported through the relay with a resolution that isonly slightly reduced by the presence of material 2301, as long asmaterial 2301 is dimensioned appropriately, and used at irregular and/orsparse intervals.

FIG. 23B illustrates a cutaway view in the longitudinal plane of anordered energy relay 2300 capable of transporting energy of multipleenergy domains. The white regions in FIG. 23B illustrate material 2302from FIG. 23A, and the black lines illustrate material 2301 from FIG.23A. FIG. 23B demonstrates what a relay material with selectivity formultiple energy domains may appear like in a cross-sectional view alongthe longitudinal (or propagation) direction. In an embodiment, regionsof 2302 may be high-density particles with selectivity for thepropagation of light, while regions of 2301 may be larger particles withselectivity for the propagation of ultrasonic frequencies. One skilledin the art can appreciate the advantages having multiple energy domainsof energy propagation within a single relay material may provide.

FIG. 24 illustrates a system 2400 for manufacturing an energy relaymaterial capable of propagating energy of two different energy domains.In FIG. 24, a block 2401 of energy relay material is provided. In anembodiment, the block 2401 of energy relay material may be configured totransport energy belonging to a first energy domain along a longitudinalplane of the block. One or more mechanical openings, such as 2402, maybe formed such that a second pattern is introduced into the material.These regions may be drilled, carved, melted, formed, fused, etched,laser cut, chemically formed, or otherwise produced in a regular ornon-regular pattern appropriate for the desired energy domain. In anembodiment, the mechanical openings 2402 may be left empty. For example,in an embodiment, a relay material may comprise holes which formwaveguides for the propagation of sound waves.

In an embodiment, a second material, such as material 2403, may be addedto fill the mechanical openings 2402. Material 2403 may possessproperties that allow the propagation of energy of a different energydomain than that of block 2401. Thus, once material 2403 is integratedto block 2401, the resultant relay will effectively propagate energy oftwo different energy domains. For example, block 2401 may be configuredto propagate localized electromagnetic energy for the transport ofhigh-resolution images, while the plugs 2403 may be removed from theholes 2402, and replaced with an energy relay which is designed for thetransport of ultrasonic sound waves. The resulting energy relay materialmay allow for higher transport efficiency in the longitudinal plane thanin the transverse plane, for the two energy domains.

In an embodiment, a relay element in the form of a faceplate or blockdesigned for visible light has a series of micro perforations cutthrough the surface of the faceplate in order to introduce flexibleacoustic mechanical waveguide tubes into the energy relay material.

FIG. 25 illustrates a perspective view of an energy relay element 2500capable of relaying energy of two different energy domains. Relay 2500may comprise a first material 2501 and a second material 2502. Materials2501 and 2502 may be substantially the same material, but differ in adimensional size or shape. Alternately, materials 2501 and 2502 may bedifferent materials with varying energy propagation properties. Bothmaterials 2501 and 2502 may comprise a plurality of ordered ordisordered substituent energy relay particles, or may be monolithicmaterials.

FIG. 26 illustrates a perspective view of an energy relay element 2600capable of relaying energy of two different energy domains whichincludes flexible energy waveguides. A first material 2601 may haveintroduced throughout it a second material 2602 in the configurationshown in FIG. 26 to effectively transport energy of two different energydomains through the material. Additionally, flexible waveguides 2603 maybe added to the bottom of element 2600 in order to transport energy of afirst energy domain to a side of element 2600 to be transportedtherethrough. Likewise, flexible waveguides 2604 may be added to thebottom of element 2600 in order to transport energy of a second energydomain to a side of 2600 to transported therethrough. Flexiblewaveguides 2603 and 2604 may be designed to effectively transport energybelonging to different energy domains, and in an embodiment, waveguide2603 may be designed to transport energy of the same energy domain asthat of material 2601, and waveguide 2604 may be designed to transportenergy of the same energy domain as that of material 2602.

In an embodiment, the flexible waveguides 2603 and 2604 may be attachedat a second end to an energy projecting or receiving device (not shown).Flexible waveguides 2603 and 2604, due to their flexibility, may allowfor the surfaces of relay element 2600 for receiving and projectingenergy to be in substantially different locations in 2D or 3D space.Flexible waveguides may be combined for multiple energy domains to allowfor seamless intermixing between two or more energy devices.

FIG. 27 illustrates method for forming a multi-energy domain relay 2700comprising different materials 2703 and 2704 before and after fusing. InFIG. 27B, individual rods of the two relay materials 2703 and 2704 areprovided and arranged in the configuration shown at 2701. Theconfiguration of materials 2703 and 2704 may be configured to transportenergy belonging to first and second energy domains along a longitudinalplane of the materials. In an embodiment, materials 2703 and 2704 aredesigned to transport energy belonging to different energy domains. Thematerials in configuration 2701 are then fused together to form asingle, seamless energy relay shown at 2702. In an embodiment, fusingthe configuration 2701 together may comprise any of the following stepsperformed in any order: applying heat to the configuration, applyingcompressive force to the configuration, applying cooling to theconfiguration, and performing a chemical reaction to the arrangement,with or without a catalyst present. The relay 2702 may be capable ofrelaying the energy belonging to the energy domains specific tomaterials 2703 and 2704. In an embodiment, either of materials 2703 or2704 may be selected to be air, depending upon the desired energypropagation characteristics of the fused relay 2702. For example, one ofthe desired energy domains for propagation through relay 2702 may besound, leading to air being selected as a possible energy relaymaterial. In an embodiment, the energy relay materials may be flexiblematerials prior to fusing, or may have a flexibility induced in them asa result of the fusing process. In an embodiment, the energy relaymaterials 2703 and 2704 may comprise one or more component engineeredstructures as discussed elsewhere in the present disclosure. In anembodiment, the method illustrated in FIG. 27 may be performed using aconstrained space, which may be provided by a mold, whereby thematerials 2703 and 2704 are arranged in the configuration 2701 and thenaccommodated in the constrained space while the fusing process step(s)is performed.

FIG. 28 illustrates a perspective view of an energy relay 2800comprising a plurality of perforations. In relay 2800,micro-perforations, or other forms of holes such as hole 2801 may beproduced in an energy relay. This may provide the ability for energy tobe relays in a first energy domain, while allowing sound, mechanicalenergy, liquids, or any other desired structures to pass freely throughthe energy relay simultaneously with the first energy domain.

While the examples discussed herein comprise relays designed totransport energy of two different energy domains for simplicity, oneskilled in the art should appreciate that the exact number of differentenergy domains need not be two, and the principles disclosed herein maybe used to design materials for transporting energy of any desirednumber of different energy domains. Thus, the scope of the presentdisclosure should not be seen as limited to materials designed for onlytwo different energy domains of transport.

Energy Combining Elements

The relay 1900 shown in FIG. 26 can be considered a relay combiningelement which can be configured to be a dual-energy source if both therelay material 2603 and 2604 are each coupled to energy sources of thecorresponding energy domain and wavelength. Energy projecting systemscan leverage relays that are constructed with interleaved energylocations—such as the one shown in FIG. 26 as well as the relay 2300shown in FIG. 23A, to transport energy from two different energysources, and merge this energy onto a single surface with a spatialresolution that will be guided by the dimensions of each energy domainregion and the arrangement of the two different types of relay domainregions. In an embodiment, an energy combining element allowing two ormore energy propagation paths to be interleaved. an example of which isshown in FIG. 20 In addition, since energy relays are bidirectional, itis possible to absorb two different types of energy from one surface, orsimultaneously source and sense energy from a single surface.

FIG. 19A illustrates an energy relay combining element 1900 thatcomprises a first surface and two interwoven second surfaces 1930wherein the second surface 1930 having both an energy emitting device1910 and an energy sensing device 1920. A further embodiment of FIG. 19Aincludes an energy relay combining element 1900 having two or moresub-structure components 1910, 1920 for at least one of two or moresecond relay surfaces 1930, that exhibits different engineeredproperties between the sub-structure components of the two or moresecond relay surfaces 1930, including sub-structure diameter, whereinthe sub-structure diameter for each of the one or more second surfaces1930 is substantially similar to the wavelength for a determined energydevice and energy frequency domain.

FIG. 19B illustrates a further embodiment of FIG. 19A wherein the energyrelay combining element 1901 includes one or more element types 1910,1920, within one or more waveguide element surfaces 1930 and properties,where each of the element types 1910, 1920 are designed to alter thepropagation path 1950, 1960 of a wavelength within the commensurateenergy frequency domain. In one embodiment, the energy relay combiningelement 1950 may include an electromagnetic energy emitting device 1910and a mechanical energy emitting device 1920, each device 1910, 1920configured to alter an electromagnetic energy relay path 1950 and amechanical energy relay path 1960, respectively.

In another embodiment, the wavelengths of any second energy frequencydomain may be substantially unaffected by the first energy frequencydomain. The combination of multiple energy devices on the two or moresecond surfaces of the energy relay and the one or more element typeswithin the one or more waveguide elements provides the ability tosubstantially propagate one or more energy domains through the energydevices, the energy relays, and the energy waveguides substantiallyindependently as required for a specified application.

In one embodiment, the energy relay combining element 1901 may furtherinclude an electromagnetic energy waveguide 1970 and a mechanical energywaveguide 1980 assembled in a stacked configuration and coupled to asimultaneously integrated seamless energy surface 1930 similar to thatdescribed above. In operation, the energy relay combining element 1901is able to propagate energy paths such that all the energy is able toconverge about a same location 1990.

In some embodiments, this waveguide 1901 may be a single relay elementwith a bidirectional energy surface, one interlaced segment to propagateenergy, and a second interlaced segment to receive energy at the energysurface. In this fashion, this may be repeated for every energy relaymodule in the system to produce a bidirectional energy surface.

Seamless Energy Directing Devices

FIG. 58 illustrates a perspective view of an embodiment 5800 of anenergy directing device where energy relay element stacks are arrangedin an 8×4 array to form a singular seamless energy directing surface5810 with the shortest dimension of the terminal surface of each taperedenergy relay element stack parallel to the longest dimension of theenergy surface 5810. The energy originates from 32 separate energysources 5850; each bonded or otherwise attached to the first element ofthe energy relay element stacks.

In an embodiment, the energy surface 5810 may be arranged to form adisplay wall.

In an embodiment, a separation between the edges of any two adjacentsecond surfaces of the terminal energy relay elements may be less than aminimum perceptible contour as defined by the visual acuity of a humaneye having better than 20/100 vision at a distance, greater than thelesser of a height of the singular seamless display surface or a widthof the singular seamless display surface, from the singular seamlessdisplay surface.

FIG. 59 contains the following views of embodiment 59A00: a front view5910, a top view 5910, a side view 5930, and a close-up side view 5940.

FIG. 60 is the close-up view of the side view 5940 of the energydirecting device 1600, consisting of a repeating structure comprised ofenergy relay element stacks 6030 arranged along a transverse orientationdefined by first and second directions, used to propagate energy wavesfrom the plurality of energy units 6050 to a single common seamlessenergy surface 6080 formed by the second surface of the energy relayelement stacks. Each energy unit 6050 is composed of an energy source6010 as well as the mechanical enclosure 6050 which houses the driveelectronics. Each relay stack is composed of a faceplate 6040 with nomagnification directly bonded to an energy source 6010 on one side, anda tapered energy relay on the other side, where the taper spatiallymagnifies the energy wave from the faceplate while propagating theenergy to the seamless energy surface 6080. In one embodiment, themagnification of the tapered energy relay is 2:1. In one embodiment,tapered energy relays 6020 are held in place by a common base structure6060, and each of these tapers are bonded to a faceplate 601640, whichin turn is bonded to the energy unit 6050. Neighboring tapers 6020 arebonded or fused together at seam 6070 in order to ensure that thesmallest possible seam gap is realized. All the tapered energy relays inthe full 8×4 array are arranged in a seamless mosaic such that thesecond surface for each tapered energy relay forms a single contiguousenergy surface 6080, which is polished during assembly to ensureflatness. In one embodiment, surface 6010 is polished to within 10 wavesof flatness. Face plate 6085 has dimensions slightly larger than thedimensions of the surface 601680, and is placed in direct contact withsurface 6080 in order to extend the field of view of the tapered energysurface 6080. The second surface of the faceplate forms the outputenergy surface 6010 for the energy directing device 6000.

In this embodiment of 6000, energy is propagated from each energy source6010, through the relay stack 6030, and then substantially normal to thefaceplate, defining the longitudinal direction, the first and secondsurfaces of each of the relay stacks extends generally along atransverse orientation defined by the first and second directions, wherethe longitudinal orientation is substantially normal to the transverseorientation. In one embodiment, energy waves propagating through atleast one of the relay elements faceplate 6040, taper 6020, andfaceplate 6085, have higher transport efficiency in the longitudinalorientation than in the transverse orientation and are localized in thetransverse orientation due to randomized refractive index variability inthe transverse orientation coupled with minimal refractive indexvariation in the longitudinal orientation. In some embodiments at leastone of the relay elements faceplate 6040, taper 6020, and faceplate 6085may be constructed of multicore fiber, with energy waves propagatingwithin each relay element traveling in the longitudinal orientationdetermined by the alignment of fibers in this orientation.

In one embodiment, the energy waves passing through the first surface of6040 have a first spatial resolution, while the energy waves passingthrough the second surface of tapered energy relay 6020 and through theface plate have a second resolution, and the second resolution is noless than about 50% of the first resolution. In another embodiment, theenergy waves, while having a uniform profile at the first surface of thefaceplate 6040, may pass through the seamless energy surfaces 6080 and6010 radiating in every direction with an energy density in the forwarddirection that substantially fills a cone with an opening angle of +/−10degrees relative to the normal to the seamless energy surface 6010,irrespective of location on this surface 6010.

In an embodiment, an energy directing device comprises one or moreenergy sources and one or more energy relay element stacks.

In an embodiment, each energy relay element of an energy directingdevice may comprise at least one of:

one or more optical elements exhibiting transverse AndersonLocalization;

a plurality of optical fibers;

loose coherent optical fibers;

image combiners;

one or more gradient index optical elements;

one or more beam splitters;

one or more prisms;

one or more polarized optical elements;

one or more multiple size or length optical elements for mechanicaloffset;

one or more waveguides;

one or more diffractive, refractive, reflective, holographic,lithographic, or transmissive elements; and

one or more retroreflectors.

In an embodiment, a quantity of the one or more energy relay elementsand a quantity of the one or more energy locations may define amechanical dimension of the energy directing device. The quantity ofoptical relay elements incorporated into the system is unlimited andonly constrained by mechanical considerations and the resultant seamlessenergy surface includes a plurality of lower resolution energy sourcesproducing an infinite resolution energy surface only limited by theresolving power and image quality of the components included within thedisplay device.

A mechanical structure may be preferable in order to hold the multiplerelay components in a fashion that meets a certain tolerancespecification. Mechanically, the energy relays that comprise a secondsurface that forms the seamless energy surface are cut and polished to ahigh degree of accuracy before being bonded or fused together in orderto align them and ensure that the smallest possible seam gap between theenergy relays is possible. The seamless surface 6080 is polished afterthe relays 6020 are bonded together. In one such embodiment, using anepoxy that is thermally matched to the tapered energy relay material, itis possible to achieve a maximum seam gap of 50 um. In anotherembodiment, a manufacturing process that places the taper array undercompression and/or heat provides the ability to fuse the elementstogether. In another embodiment, the use of plastic tapers can be moreeasily chemically fused or heat-treated to create the bond withoutadditional bonding. For the avoidance of doubt, any methodology may beused to bond the array together, to explicitly include no bond otherthan gravity and/or force.

The energy surface may be polished individually and/or as a singularenergy surface and may be any surface shape, including planar,spherical, cylindrical, conical, faceted, tiled, regular, non-regular,convex, concave, slanted, or any other geometric shape for a specifiedapplication. The optical elements may be mechanically mounted such thatthe optical axes are parallel, nonparallel and/or arranged with energysurface normal oriented in a specified way.

The ability to create various shapes outside of the active display areaprovides the ability to couple multiple optical elements in series tothe same base structure through clamping structures, bonding processes,or any other mechanical means desired to hold one or more relay elementsin place. The various shapes may be formed out of optical materials orbonded with additional appropriate materials. The mechanical structureleveraged to hold the resultant shape may be of the same form to fitover top of said structure. In one embodiment, an energy relay isdesigned with a square shape with a side that is equal to 10% of thetotal length of the energy relay, but 25% greater than the active areaof the energy source in width and height. This energy relay is clampedwith the matched mechanical structure and may leverage refractive indexmatching oil, refractive index matched epoxy, or the like. In the caseof electromagnetic energy sources, the process to place any two opticalelements in series may include mechanical or active alignment whereinvisual feedback is provided to ensure that the appropriate tolerance ofimage alignment is performed. Typically, a display is mounted to therear surface of the optical element prior to alignment, but this may ormay not be desired depending on application.

In an embodiment, the second sides of terminal energy relay elements ofeach energy relay element stack may be arranged to form a singularseamless energy surface.

In an embodiment, the singular seamless energy surface formed by amosaic of energy relay element stacks may be extended by placing afaceplate layer in direct contact with the surface, using a bondingagent, index matching oil, pressure, or gravity to adhere it to theenergy surface. In one embodiment, the faceplate layer may be composedof a single piece of energy relay material, while in others it iscomposed of two or more pieces of energy relay material bonded or fusedtogether. In one embodiment, the extension of a faceplate may increasethe angle of emission of the energy waves relative to the normal to theseamless energy surface.

In an embodiment, the one or more energy relay element stacks may beconfigured to direct energy along propagation paths which extend betweenthe one or more energy locations and the singular seamless energysurfaces.

In an embodiment, a separation between the edges of any two adjacentsecond surfaces of the terminal energy relay elements may be less than aminimum perceptible contour as defined by the visual acuity of a humaneye having than 20/40 vision at a distance the lesser of a height of thesingular seamless energy surface or a width of the singular seamlessenergy surface, from the singular seamless energy surface.

In an embodiment, the energy relay elements of each energy relay elementstack are arranged in an end-to-end configuration. In an embodiment,energy may be directed through the one or more energy relay elementstacks with zero magnification, non-zero magnification, or non-zerominification. In an embodiment, any of the energy relay elements of theone or more energy relay element stacks may comprise an elementexhibiting Transverse Anderson Localization, an optical fiber, a beamsplitter, an image combiner, an element configured to alter an angulardirection of energy passing therethrough, etc.

In an embodiment, energy directed along energy propagation paths may beelectromagnetic energy defined by a wavelength, the wavelength belongingto a regime of the electromagnetic spectrum such as visible light,ultraviolet, infrared, x-ray, etc. In an embodiment, energy directedalong energy propagation paths may be mechanical energy such as acousticsound, tactile pressure, etc. A volumetric sound environment is atechnology that effectively aspires to achieve holographic sound orsimilar technology. A dimensional tactile device produces an array oftransducers, air emitters, or the like to generate a sensation oftouching objects floating in midair that may be directly coupled to thevisuals displayed in a light field display. Any other technologies thatsupport interactive or immersive media may additionally be explored inconjunction with this holographic display. For the use of the energydirecting device as a display surface, the electronics may be mounteddirectly to the pins of the individual displays, attached to theelectronics with a socket such as a zero-insertion force (ZIF)connector, or by using an interposer and/or the like, to providesimplified installation and maintenance of the system. In oneembodiment, display electronic components including display boards,FPGAs, ASICs, IO devices or similarly desired components preferable forthe use of said display, may be mounted or tethered on flex orflexi-rigid cables in order to produce an offset between the displaymounting plane and the location of the physical electronic package.Additional mechanical structures are provided to mount the electronicsas desired for the device. This provides the ability to increase densityof the optical elements, thereby reducing the optical magnification forany tapered optical relays and decreasing overall display size and/orweight.

Cooling structures may be designed to maintain system performance withina specified temperature range, wherein all mechanical structures mayinclude additional copper or other similar material tubing to provide aliquid cooling system with a solid state liquid cooling system providingsufficient pressure on a thermostat regulator. Additional embodimentsmay include Peltier units or heat syncs and/or the like to maintainconsistent system performance for the electronics, displays and/or anyother components sensitive to temperature changes during operation orthat may produce excess heat.

Energy Directing Systems and Multiple Energy Domains

An energy-projection system may be formed using an energy relaycombining element 1901, allowing the projection of more than one type ofenergy simultaneously, or the projection of one type of energy andsimultaneous sensing of the same or a different type of energy. Forexample, in an embodiment, using an energy relay combining element, theenergy directing module 1901 can be configured to simultaneously projecta light field in front of the display surface and capture a light fieldfrom the front of the display surface. In this embodiment, the energyrelay device 1950 connects a first set of locations at the seamlessenergy surface 1930 positioned under the waveguide elements 1970, 1980to an energy device 1910. In an example, energy device 1910 is anemissive display having an array of source pixels. The energy relaydevice 1960 connects a second set of locations at the seamless energysurface 1930 positioned under waveguide elements 1970, 1980 to an energydevice 1920. In an example, the energy device 1920 is an imaging sensorhaving an array of sensor pixels. The energy directing module 1901 maybe configured such that the locations at the seamless energy surface1930 are tightly interleaved, as shown in FIG. 26. In anotherembodiment, all the sensor pixels 1920 that are under a particularwaveguide element 1970 or 1980 are all emissive display locations, allimaging sensor locations, or some combination of locations. In otherembodiments, the seamless energy surface comprises source locationsunder waveguides, and sensing locations in between the waveguides, insuch a way that the source locations project a light field, and thelocations that transport light to the imaging sensors capture a 2D lightfield. In other embodiments, the bidirectional energy surface canproject and receive various other forms of energy.

In an embodiment, waveguides may be provided that are configured todirect energy of a similar energy domain. In an embodiment, waveguidesmay be provided that are configured to direct energy of one of multipleenergy domains. In an embodiment, a single waveguide may be configuredto direct energy of more than one energy domain.

FIG. 20 illustrates an orthogonal view of an energy-directing system2000 which utilizes the energy relay combining element of FIG. 19A,comprising a bidirectional energy relay which acts as both a light fieldprojection system as well as an image sensor. FIG. 20 illustrates aviewer at location L1 and time T1, with converging rays along a paththrough a waveguide and to energy coordinates P1, and where a viewermoves to location L2 at time T2, with rays converging along a paththrough a waveguide and to energy coordinates P2, and where each of theplurality of energy coordinates P1 and P2 are formed on a first side ofan energy relay surface and includes two interwoven second relaysurfaces and provides a first energy sensing device and a second energyemitting device to both sense movement and interaction within theviewing volume through the energy waveguide as well as emit energythrough the same energy relay and energy waveguide resulting in thevisible change to energy emitted from time and location T1, L1 to T2,L2, in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. Theplurality of energy coordinates P1, P2 may be coplanar, or may bedistributed in multiple planes or locations in three-dimensional space.

In one embodiment, the system 2000 may include energy devices 2020 whereone set of energy devices are configured for energy emission 2010 andanother set of energy devices are configured for energy sensing 2030. Inan embodiment, energy devices 2020 may be disposed at respective secondand third surfaces of the system 2000, while the energy surface 2050 maybe disposed at a first surface of the system 2000. This embodiment mayfurther include a plurality of relay combining elements 2040 configuredto provide a single seamless energy surface 2050. Optionally, aplurality of waveguides 2060 may be disposed in front of the energysurface 2050. In operation, as discussed above, the system 2000 mayprovide simultaneous bi-directional energy sensing or emission withinteractive control with the propagated energy at T1 2070, and modifiedpropagated energy at T2 2080, in response to sensed movement between T1,L1 and T2, L2.

In another embodiment of an energy display system 1901 from FIG. 19B,the system 1901 is configured to project two different types of energy.In an embodiment of FIG. 19B, energy device 1910 is an emissive displayconfigured to emit electromagnetic energy and energy device 1920 is anultrasonic transducer configured to emit mechanical energy. As such,both light and sound can be projected from various locations at theseamless energy surface 1930. In this configuration, energy relay device1950 connects the energy device 1910 to the seamless energy surface 1930and relays the electromagnetic energy. The energy relay device isconfigured to have properties (e.g. varying refractive index) which makeit efficient for transporting electromagnetic energy. In an embodiment,the energy relay device may comprise a random pattern of energy relaymaterials configured to induce Anderson Localization of transverseenergy propagation. In an embodiment, the energy relay device maycomprise a non-random pattern of energy relay materials configured toinduce Ordered Energy Localization of transverse energy propagation.Energy relay device 1960 connects the energy device 1920 to the seamlessenergy surface 1930 and relays mechanical energy. Energy relay device1960 is configured to have properties for efficient transport ofultrasound energy (e.g. distribution of materials with differentacoustic impedance). In some embodiments, the mechanical energy may beprojected from locations between the electromagnetic waveguide elements1970 on the energy waveguide layer. The locations that projectmechanical energy may form structures that serve to inhibit light frombeing transported from one electromagnetic waveguide element to another.In one example, a spatially separated array of locations that projectultrasonic mechanical energy can be configured to createthree-dimensional haptic shapes and surfaces in mid-air. The surfacesmay coincide with projected holographic objects (e.g., holographicobject 1990). In some examples, phase delays and amplitude variationsacross the array can assist in creating the haptic shapes.

Further embodiments of FIG. 20 include compound systems wherein theenergy relay system having more than two second surfaces, and whereinthe energy devices may be all of a differing energy domain, and whereineach of the energy devices may each receive or emit energy through afirst surface of the energy relay system.

FIG. 21 illustrates a further compound system 2100 of FIG. 19A with anorthogonal view of an embodiment where a viewer is at location L1 attime T1, with converging rays along a path through a waveguide and toenergy coordinates P1, and wherein a viewer moves to location L2 at timeT2, with rays converging along a path through a waveguide and to energycoordinates P2, and wherein each of the plurality of energy coordinatesP1 and P2 are formed on a first side of an energy relay surface andcomprises three second relay surfaces having a first mechanical energyemitting device, a second energy emitting device and a third energysensing device, wherein the energy waveguide emits both mechanical andenergy through the first surface of the energy relay allowing the thirdenergy sensing device to detect interference from the known emittedenergy to the sensed received data, and wherein the mechanical energyemission results in the ability to directly interact with the emittedenergy, the mechanical energy converging to produce tactile sensation,the energy converging to produce visible illumination, and the energyemitted at T1, L1 to T2, L2 is modified to respond to the tactileinteraction between the viewer and the emitted energy, in accordancewith one embodiment of the present disclosure.

In one embodiment, the system 2100 may include an ultrasonic energyemission device 2110, an electromagnetic energy emission device 2120,and an electromagnetic sensing device 2130. This embodiment may furtherinclude a plurality of relay combining elements 2140 configured toprovide a single seamless energy surface 2150. Optionally, a pluralityof waveguides 2170 may be disposed in front of the energy surface 2150.

The one or more energy devices may be independently paired withtwo-or-more-path relay combiners, beam splitters, prisms, polarizers, orother energy combining methodology, to pair at least two energy devicesto the same portion of the energy surface. The one or more energydevices may be secured behind the energy surface, proximate to anadditional component secured to the base structure, or to a location infront and outside of the FOV of the waveguide for off-axis direct orreflective projection or sensing. The resulting energy surface providesfor bidirectional transmission of energy and the waveguide convergeenergy waves onto the energy device to sense relative depth, proximity,images, color, sound, and other energy, and wherein the sensed energy isprocessed to perform machine vision related tasks including, but notlimited to, 4D eye and retinal tracking through the waveguide array,energy surface and to the energy sensing device.

In operation, as discussed above, the system 1900 may providesimultaneous bi-directional energy sensing or emission with interactivecontrol with the propagated energy at T1 2180, propagated haptics at T11960, and modified propagated energy at T2 2190, in response to sensedinterference of propagated energy emission from sensed movement andultrasonic haptic response between T1, L1 and T2, L2.

FIG. 22 illustrates an embodiment of pairing one or more energy devices2210 to additional components (e.g., relay elements 2200 configured toform a single seamless energy surface 2220) where a viewer is atlocation L1, with converging rays along a path through a waveguide 2230and to energy coordinates P1, and where each of the plurality of energycoordinates P1 are formed on a first side of an energy relay surface2220 corresponding to one or more devices, and where the waveguide orrelay surface provides an additional reflective or diffractive propertyand propagated haptics 2260, where the reflective or diffractiveproperty substantially does not affect the propagation of rays atcoordinates P1.

In one embodiment, the reflective or diffractive property commensuratefor the energy of additional off-axis energy devices 2235A, 2235B, eachof devices 2235A, 2235B containing an additional waveguide and energyrelay, each additional energy relay containing two or more secondsurfaces, each with a sensing or emitting device respectively withcorresponding energy coordinates P2 propagating through a similar volumeas P1 2250. In one embodiment, reflective or diffractive energy canpropagate through the devices.

In another embodiment, an additional system out of the field of view inrespect to the first and second waveguide elements comprise anadditional system 2240A, 2240B having additional waveguide and relayelements, the relay elements having two second surfaces and one firstsurface, the second surfaces receiving energy from both focused emittingand sensing energy devices.

In one embodiment, the waveguide elements 2240A, 2240B are configured topropagate energy 2270 directly through a desired volume, the desiredvolume corresponding to the path of energy coordinates P1 and P2, andforming additional energy coordinates P3 passing through the system2240A, 2240B, each of the sensing and emitting devices configured todetect interference from the known emitted energy to the sensed receiveddata.

In some embodiments, the mechanical energy emission results in theability to directly interact with the emitted energy, the mechanicalenergy converging to produce tactile sensation, the energy converging toproduce visible illumination, and the energy emitted is modified torespond to the tactile interaction between the viewer and the emittedenergy, in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure.

Various components within the architecture may be mounted in a number ofconfigurations to include, but not limit, wall mounting, table mounting,head mounting, curved surfaces, non-planar surfaces, or otherappropriate implementation of the technology.

FIGS. 20, 21, and 22 illustrates an embodiment wherein the energysurface and the waveguide may be operable to emit, reflect, diffract orconverge frequencies to induce tactile sensation or volumetric hapticfeedback.

FIGS. 20, 21, and 22 illustrates a bidirectional energy surfacecomprising (a) a base structure; (b) one or more components collectivelyforming an energy surface; (c) one or more energy devices; and (d) oneor more energy waveguides. The energy surface, devices, and waveguidesmay mount to the base structure and prescribe an energy waveguide systemcapable of bidirectional emission and sensing of energy through theenergy surface.

In an embodiment, the resulting energy display system provides for theability to both display and capture simultaneously from the sameemissive surface with waveguides designed such that light field data maybe projected by an illumination source through the waveguide andsimultaneously received through the same energy device surface withoutadditional external devices.

Further, the tracked positions may actively calculate and steer light tospecified coordinates to enable variable imagery and other projectedfrequencies to be guided to prescribed application requirements from thedirect coloration between the bidirectional surface image and projectioninformation.

An embodiment of FIGS. 20, 21, and 22 wherein the one or more componentsare formed to accommodate any surface shape, including planar,spherical, cylindrical, conical, faceted, tiled, regular, non-regular,or any other geometric shape for a specified application.

An embodiment of FIGS. 20, 21, and 22 wherein the one or more componentscomprise materials that induce transverse Anderson localization.

In one embodiment, an energy system configured to direct energyaccording to a four-dimensional (4D) plenoptic function includes aplurality of energy devices; an energy relay system having one or moreenergy relay elements, where each of the one or more energy relayelements includes a first surface and a second surface, the secondsurface of the one or more energy relay elements being arranged to forma singular seamless energy surface of the energy relay system, and wherea first plurality of energy propagation paths extend from the energylocations in the plurality of energy devices through the singularseamless energy surface of the energy relay system. The energy systemfurther includes an energy waveguide system having an array of energywaveguides, where a second plurality of energy propagation paths extendfrom the singular seamless energy surface through the array of energywaveguides in directions determined by a 4D plenoptic function. In oneembodiment, the singular seamless energy surface is operable to bothprovide and receive energy therethrough.

In one embodiment, the energy system is configured to direct energyalong the second plurality of energy propagation paths through theenergy waveguide system to the singular seamless energy surface, and todirect energy along the first plurality of energy propagation paths fromthe singular seamless energy surface through the energy relay system tothe plurality of energy devices.

In another embodiment, the energy system is configured to direct energyalong the first plurality of energy propagation paths from the pluralityof energy devices through the energy relay system to the singularseamless energy surface, and to direct energy along the second pluralityof energy propagation paths from the singular seamless energy surfacethrough the energy waveguide system.

In some embodiments, the energy system is configured to sense relativedepth, proximity, images, color, sound and other electromagneticfrequencies, and where the sensed energy is processed to perform machinevision related to 4D eye and retinal tracking. In other embodiments, thesingular seamless energy surface is further operable to both display andcapture simultaneously from the singular seamless energy surface withthe energy waveguide system designed such that light field data may beprojected by the plurality of energy devices through the energywaveguide system and simultaneously received through the same singularseamless energy surface.

Electrostatic Speakers

To generate a dual-energy surface, it is possible for a first energysurface to be configured with transducers of a second energy source thatallow the projection of a second energy in addition to the first energy.Electrostatic speakers are an example of a technology that canintegrated with an energy projection surface, and be used to generatesound, and under certain configurations a sound field and volumetrichaptic surfaces.

One of the challenges facing large-scale display technologies is how toeffectively incorporate extra-visual stimulation, such as sound, in aconvincing and unintrusive manner. Generally, auditory signals have beengenerated at remote locations from where the visual signals aregenerated. For example, speakers in a movie theater auditorium have beenplaced to the sides, around, and across from a display screen. Morerecently, advances have been made in perforated projection screens,allowing auditory signals to be generated behind the screen andtransmitted through the perforations. However, this approach usuallycomes at the cost of audio quality of signals propagating through thescreen, or visual quality of the projection screen as some visualsignals are compromised due to the screen perforations.

The present disclosure proposes electrostatic speakers as an alternativeacoustic energy generating solution which improves upon the conventionalmethods discussed. An electrostatic speaker is a sound generating devicethat operates by vibrating a thin membrane which is suspended in anelectrostatic field to create vibrational soundwaves. Generally, themembrane consists of a thin flexible material, such as plastic, which iscovered or interlaced with a second conductive material. The compositemembrane is then placed between an electrically conductive grid with asmall gap left on either side of the membrane. An electric signalcorresponding with the desired audio data is then used to drive acurrent along corresponding portions of the electric grid, which in turncauses the membrane to vibrate under the generated electric field,producing air vibrations which form auditory signals.

FIG. 44 illustrates a view of the essential components of anelectrostatic speaker 4400. The diaphragm 4401 is electricallyconductive, and is suspended between two conductive grids consisting ofelectrodes 4402 which provide an electric field provided by one or morepairs of electrode wires 4403. The diaphragm is held at a potentialvoltage supplied by wire 4404, and deforms when voltage is applied tothe electrodes, generating a vibrational sound wave. The conductive gridmay be a set of apertures in a single conductive plane. FIG. 53illustrates an embodiment of one embodiment of a single electrode usedfor an electrostatic speaker system, consisting of a set of clearapertures 5305 in a single pair of continuous conductive planes 5302,surrounding a conductive diaphragm 5301. Each electrode pair anddiaphragm can also take the form of a plurality ofindividually-controlled grid pairs which together form a pair ofconductive planes. FIG. 54 illustrates a view of an electrostaticspeaker which comprises four identical modules 5300 from FIG. 53, whichall may be driven separately.

As previously discussed, for any display, holographic or otherwise,there is often a challenge for how to incorporate sound without theintroduction of visible speakers. Other methods to hide speakers behindscreens include perforated screens as well as a number of othertechnologies that typically trade off sound quality and image brightnessfor the ability to place acoustics in unseen locations. This isparticularly problematic for video wall applications where large systemsincluding direct emissive displays are often large, thick and filledwith electronics, which renders the ability to place acoustics behindthe screen very challenging, if not impossible. We propose adifferentiated approach to solve the acoustic challenges for largedisplay venues wherein a variant of an electrostatic diaphragm isleveraged overtop of the display surface, and wherein the components ofthe electrostatic materials provide seamless tiling capability with theelectrical wiring provisioned as either passing through the displaysurface, or daisy chained between adjacent tiles. The electrostaticelements leverage extremely thin polymers for the diaphragm (2-20 um)sandwiched between thin perforated conductive materials. In the proposeddesign, the perforations follow the patterning of any of: pixel layout,4D optics layout, or LED diode layout, or any other configuration with adesired pattern to follow. With this approach, it is feasible now toconstruct an optically transparent element with sufficient density andspacing provided for each of the perforations within the conductivematerials to match the commensurate pattern from the underlying displaysurface. Further, due to the directional qualities of the electrostaticsystem, it is additionally possible to generate sound fields by alteringthe modulation/input signals for each of the tiled elements, or on a perregion basis. This further increases the capability dramatically beyondtraditional acoustics given the level of directional control and thetransparent nature of the proposed system. In an additional embodiment,it is possible to directly fabricate the electrostatic element withinthe waveguide array for a holographic display system and manufacturesimultaneously.

FIG. 45 illustrates a side view of an energy projection system 4500 withincorporated electrostatic speaker elements. In FIG. 45, an energysource system 4510 is configured to direct energy from energy locations4511 through an energy projection system 4514, which comprises an arrayof waveguides 4515. Each waveguide projects a set of projection paths,shown as 4521 for one of the waveguides 4515, where each projection pathis determined at least by the position of its corresponding energysource location 4511. The conductive grid 4502 which controls theposition of the diaphragm 4501 is driven with voltage applied to wires4503. It is arranged so that the apertures of the grid coincide with thewaveguides 4515. A possible geometry for the conductive grid is shown as5302 in FIG. 53. The energy projected by the waveguides 4515 passesthrough the apertures of the grid and through the diaphragm 4501 withoutsignificant loss. For example, for visible electromagnetic energyprojected 4521, the diaphragm may be relatively transparent ITO-coatedPET material. The voltage wires may be provided through appropriatelocations drilled, fused, or otherwise provided on the energy projectionsystem.

FIG. 46 illustrates an energy display device 4600 consisting simply ofan energy source system 4631 comprising energy sources 4632 whichproject energy 4621. Each energy source is covered with a transparentelectrostatic diaphragm 4601 sandwiched by electrodes 4602 which havetheir apertures aligned to the energy source locations 4632. In anembodiment, display device 4600 may be a traditional LED video wall,with diodes at each energy source location 4632, augmented by anelectrostatic speaker which projects the mechanical energy of sound inaddition to electromagnetic energy. In embodiments, it is possible thatthe electrostatic speaker is made from many individual regions asillustrated in FIG. 54, which can be driven independently. An array ofsuch modules can be used to generate an array of ultrasound directingsurfaces, which can be configured to generate directional sound. Inanother embodiment, phase delays and amplitude variations across thearray can assist in creating haptic shapes in front of the display.

FIG. 47 illustrates a portion of a 4D energy projection system 4700which integrates perforated conductive elements of an electrostaticspeaker as energy inhibiting elements between adjacent waveguides. Theenergy projection system 4700 comprises an energy source system 4710consisting of multiple energy source locations, and energy projectionwaveguides 4721 and 4722. Sandwiched in between the waveguides and theenergy source system is an electrostatic speaker with apertures in theconductive planes arranged coincident with the waveguides, withconductive elements 4702 placed in between the waveguides, and adiaphragm 4701 which is transmissive to the projected energy from thewaveguides. In an embodiment, the apertures of the conductive planes arearranged coincident with apertures of the waveguides. Energy sourcesystem 4710 comprises energy source location 4711 on the first side ofwaveguide 4715, and its corresponding propagation path 4721 on thesecond side of waveguide 4715. Energy source system 4710 also has energysource location 4712 on the first side of waveguide 4716, andcorresponding energy propagation path 4722 on the second side ofwaveguide 4716. Portions of energy 4726 from location 4711 which do notpass through the aperture of the waveguide 4715 are blocked by at leastone of the closest portions of the conductive layer 4702A and 4702B ofthe electrostatic speaker. This conductive structure also partially theportions of the neighboring energy 4727 from energy location 4712 thatdoes not pass through the aperture of the respective waveguide 4716. Inthis way, the conductors of the electrostatic speaker act as energyinhibiting elements that can take the place and function of a bafflestructure discussed earlier, in some embodiments.

FIG. 48 illustrates a portion of a 4D energy projection system 4800which integrates the perforated conductive elements of an electrostaticspeaker as energy inhibiting elements within a waveguide arraystructure, between multiple layers of waveguide elements. The energyprojection system 4800 comprises an energy source system 4810 consistingof multiple energy source locations, and two-element waveguides 4815mounted on two waveguide substrates 4818 and 4819. In between thewaveguide substrates embedded are the pair of conductive grids 4802 anddiaphragm 4801 of an electrostatic speaker. The energy from energylocation 4811 is projected by a waveguide 4815 into energy projectionpath 4821. Portions of the energy from energy location 4811 which do notpass through the effective aperture of the associated waveguide 4815 areblocked by the portions of at least one of the electrostatic speakerconductors that surround the aperture of the waveguide, similar to theblocking shown in FIG. 47. An embodiment of this disclosure is thewaveguide of system 4800, wherein an electrostatic speaker is embeddedwithin an array of waveguides, with conductive elements that formenergy-inhibiting structures which block portions of energy thatoriginate from energy source locations associated with a waveguide, butdo not flow through the aperture of that waveguide.

FIG. 49 illustrates an embodiment of one module of a modularelectrostatic speaker system 4900. The diaphragm 4901 is suspendedbetween two pairs of electrodes 4902, with each electrode featuringconductive stub leads 4903 which may contact the electrode of a similarmodule placed side-by-side with it. FIG. 50 illustrates an embodiment ofseveral electrostatic speaker modules 4900 placed in an assemblydisposed in front of an array of waveguides 5015 mounted on a waveguidesubstrate 5018. This structure demonstrates that an electrostaticspeaker structure may be modular, and mounted on modular tiles of anenergy-directing system, in order to create a seamless dual-energysurface that projects both sound and another form of energy.

FIG. 51 illustrates an embodiment of a modular 4D energy field packagethat projects a 4D energy field as well as vibrational sound wavesproduced by an electrostatic speaker. This is a modular version ofenergy-directing system 4500 shown in FIG. 45. Energy source system 5110comprises energy source locations 5111 and 5111A. The waveguide 5115Aguides energy from a particular energy location 5111A incident on anaperture of the waveguide 5115A into a propagation path 5121 thatdepends at least on the location of energy location 5111A. Eachwaveguide 5115 and its associated pixels 5111 represent atwo-dimensional (2D) position coordinate, and each associatedpropagation path 5121 represents a 2D angular coordinate, which togetherform a 4D coordinate for the energy that is projected from locations5111. In at least one embodiment, energy-inhibiting elements may blockthe portion of light that originates from energy sources that areassociated with a particular waveguide 5115, but that does not travelthrough the aperture of the particular waveguide. The electrostaticspeaker element comprises a diaphragm 5101 which is transmissive to theenergy of energy source system 5110, suspended between pairs ofelectrodes 5102. Conductive stubs 5103 on the electrodes 5102 at theboundary of the module allow the conductors to connect with neighboringmodules 5100 that are mounted side-by-side. The structure 5131 representelectrical connectivity and mechanical mounting for the module 5100.

FIG. 52 illustrates an embodiment of a modular energy-projecting wallconsisting of several 4D energy field packages with electrostaticspeakers 5100 mounted onto a wall 5232. Each module is autonomous,allowing for such a system to be easily assembled and maintained. Themounting wall 5232 may be planar, curved, or multi-faceted. In addition,the diaphragms for each module, 5101, may or may not connect with thediaphragms from the neighboring modules. In different embodiments, thesets of contacts 5102 for each module may or may not connect withcontacts from the neighboring modules. In an embodiment, each module5100 may function as an independent electrostatic speaker, with the pairof perorated electrode planes having a configuration as shown in FIG.54, where the apertures 5305 in the conductive material 5302 are alignedto the energy-projecting waveguides. In a different embodiment, all theconductors of the electrostatic speaker modules of the energy-projectingwall 5200, composed of a plurality of 4D energy packages integrated withelectrostatic speakers, do make contact, forming a pair of single largeperforated conductor planes. FIG. 55 illustrates an embodiment of theconductive element pair and diaphragm of an electrostatic speaker 5500with a combined area of four smaller electrostatic speakers 5300. Thislarger electrostatic speaker has a conductive plate 5502 with apertures5505 to coincide with waveguides, and a single diaphragm 5501. It willbe appreciated that while the present discussion is addressing anenergy-projecting wall consisting of modular 4D energy-field packageswith electrostatic speaker elements, these embodiments also apply toenergy-projecting systems of different types, including those thatcomprise singular seamless energy surfaces as well as energy relays.

For any energy projection system comprising an electrostatic speaker, itis possible to generate sound as well as an energy field. FIG. 56illustrates an embodiment of a scene 5600 containing dancers 5661 infront of a light field display equipped with an integrated electrostaticspeaker, which is projecting a holographic musician 5651 andsimultaneously playing music 5652.

With each 4D energy field module having an independent electrostaticspeaker with an electrode configuration of several neighboring moduleshaving the structure shown in FIG. 54, with seams, it is possible toindependently control each diaphragm to generate ultrasound mechanicalenergy. In an embodiment, any energy-directing system with an integratedelectrostatic speaker can be configured to have a plurality ofindependently-driven electrostatic speaker regions as shown in FIG. 54,including systems that comprise a seamless energy surface. Eachelectrostatic speaker region can independently project ultrasoundenergy. The resulting spatially separated array of independent locationsthat project ultrasonic mechanical energy can be configured to directsound or create three-dimensional tactile shapes and surfaces inmid-air. In some examples, phase delays and amplitude variations acrossthe array can assist in creating such haptics.

The volumetric haptic surfaces created in mid-air with a sound field maybe projected to coincide with holographic objects. FIG. 57 illustratesan embodiment of an energy projection device 4500 equipped with anelectrostatic speaker system that has a plurality ofindependently-controlled electrostatic speaker regions as illustrated inFIG. 54. Electrostatic speaker modules at 5761A, 5761B, and 5761C aredriven independently, in part by driving voltage on wire pairs 5762A,5762B, and 5762C, respectively, each generating ultrasonic energy. Thisprojected mechanical energy from all the locations on the displaysurface can be used to generate a tactile surface in space,corresponding to the outstretched hand 5752 of the holographic FIG.5751. As a result, in this example, the energy projection device 4500configured with a an independently-driven array of electrostatic speakerelements projects a hologram 5751 of a person, as well as a hapticsurface 5752 which feels like a hand to a viewer 5761.

It will be understood that the principal features of this disclosure canbe employed in various embodiments without departing from the scope ofthe disclosure. Those skilled in the art will recognize, or be able toascertain using no more than routine experimentation, numerousequivalents to the specific procedures described herein. Suchequivalents are considered to be within the scope of this disclosure andare covered by the claims.

Additionally, the section headings herein are provided for consistencywith the suggestions under 37 CFR 1.77 or otherwise to provideorganizational cues. These headings shall not limit or characterize theinvention(s) set out in any claims that may issue from this disclosure.Specifically, and by way of example, although the headings refer to a“Field of Invention,” such claims should not be limited by the languageunder this heading to describe the so-called technical field. Further, adescription of technology in the “Background of the Invention” sectionis not to be construed as an admission that technology is prior art toany invention(s) in this disclosure. Neither is the “Summary” to beconsidered a characterization of the invention(s) set forth in issuedclaims. Furthermore, any reference in this disclosure to “invention” inthe singular should not be used to argue that there is only a singlepoint of novelty in this disclosure. Multiple inventions may be setforth according to the limitations of the multiple claims issuing fromthis disclosure, and such claims accordingly define the invention(s),and their equivalents, that are protected thereby. In all instances, thescope of such claims shall be considered on their own merits in light ofthis disclosure, but should not be constrained by the headings set forthherein.

The use of the word “a” or “an” when used in conjunction with the term“comprising” in the claims and/or the specification may mean “one,” butit is also consistent with the meaning of “one or more,” “at least one,”and “one or more than one.” The use of the term “or” in the claims isused to mean “and/or” unless explicitly indicated to refer toalternatives only or the alternatives are mutually exclusive, althoughthe disclosure supports a definition that refers to only alternativesand “and/or.” Throughout this application, the term “about” is used toindicate that a value includes the inherent variation of error for thedevice, the method being employed to determine the value, or thevariation that exists among the study subjects. In general, but subjectto the preceding discussion, a value herein that is modified by a wordof approximation such as “about” or “substantially” may vary from thestated value by at least ±1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 12 or 15%.

As used in this specification and claim(s), the words “comprising” (andany form of comprising, such as “comprise” and “comprises”), “having”(and any form of having, such as “have” and “has”), “including” (and anyform of including, such as “includes” and “include”) or “containing”(and any form of containing, such as “contains” and “contain”) areinclusive or open-ended and do not exclude additional, unrecitedelements or method steps.

Words of comparison, measurement, and timing such as “at the time,”“equivalent,” “during,” “complete,” and the like should be understood tomean “substantially at the time,” “substantially equivalent,”“substantially during,” “substantially complete,” etc., where“substantially” means that such comparisons, measurements, and timingsare practicable to accomplish the implicitly or expressly stated desiredresult. Words relating to relative position of elements such as “near,”“proximate to,” and “adjacent to” shall mean sufficiently close to havea material effect upon the respective system element interactions. Otherwords of approximation similarly refer to a condition that when somodified is understood to not necessarily be absolute or perfect butwould be considered close enough to those of ordinary skill in the artto warrant designating the condition as being present. The extent towhich the description may vary will depend on how great a change can beinstituted and still have one of ordinary skilled in the art recognizethe modified feature as still having the required characteristics andcapabilities of the unmodified feature.

The term “or combinations thereof” as used herein refers to allpermutations and combinations of the listed items preceding the term.For example, “A, B, C, or combinations thereof is intended to include atleast one of: A, B, C, AB, AC, BC, or ABC, and if order is important ina particular context, also BA, CA, CB, CBA, BCA, ACB, BAC, or CAB.Continuing with this example, expressly included are combinations thatcontain repeats of one or more item or term, such as BB, AAA, AB, BBC,AAABCCCC, CBBAAA, CABABB, and so forth. The skilled artisan willunderstand that typically there is no limit on the number of items orterms in any combination, unless otherwise apparent from the context.

All of the compositions and/or methods disclosed and claimed herein canbe made and executed without undue experimentation in light of thepresent disclosure. While the compositions and methods of thisdisclosure have been described in terms of preferred embodiments, itwill be apparent to those of skill in the art that variations may beapplied to the compositions and/or methods and in the steps or in thesequence of steps of the method described herein without departing fromthe concept, spirit and scope of the disclosure. All such similarsubstitutes and modifications apparent to those skilled in the art aredeemed to be within the spirit, scope and concept of the disclosure asdefined by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. An energy relay comprising: a first module and asecond module, the first module comprising an arrangement of firstcomponent engineered structures and second component engineeredstructures in a transverse plane of the energy relay, and the secondmodule comprising an arrangement of third component engineeredstructures and fourth component engineered structures in the transverseplane of the energy relay; wherein the first and second componentengineered structures are both configured to transport energy belongingto a first energy domain along a longitudinal plane that is normal tothe transverse plane, and the third and fourth component engineeredstructures are both configured to transport energy belonging to a secondenergy domain, different from the first energy domain, along thelongitudinal plane that is normal to the transverse plane, the firstmodule having substantially higher transport efficiency in thelongitudinal plane than in the transverse plane for the first energydomain, and the second module having substantially higher transportefficiency in the longitudinal plane than in the transverse plane forthe second energy domain.
 2. The energy relay of claim 1, wherein theenergy relay comprises opposing first and second surfaces, the first andsecond surfaces having different surfaces areas, the energy relayconfigured to relay the first and second domains of energy alongpropagation paths extending through the first and second surfaces. 3.The energy relay of claim 2, the energy relay further comprising slopedsurfaces connecting edges of the first and second surfaces, wherein theenergy relay applies either a magnification or a minification to energyof at least the first or second domain as it is relayed along respectivepropagation paths.
 4. The energy relay of claim 1, wherein the energyrelay comprises at least a first surface, a second surface, and a thirdsurface, the energy relay configured to relay energy of the first domainalong a first plurality of energy propagation paths extending throughthe first and second surfaces, and to relay energy of the second domainalong a second plurality of energy propagation paths extending throughthe first and third surfaces; wherein the first and second pluralitiesof energy propagation paths are interleaved at the first surface.
 5. Theenergy relay of claim 4, wherein the second and third surfaces arecoplanar and parallel to the first surface, and located in substantiallydifferent locations.
 6. The energy relay of claim 4, wherein the first,second, third, and fourth component engineered structures comprise aflexibility allowing for the second and third surfaces to be insubstantially different locations.
 7. The energy relay of claim 4,wherein the first and second pluralities of propagation paths aresubstantially nonparallel.
 8. The energy relay of claim 1, wherein thefirst module comprises an arrangement of the first and second componentengineered structures in a substantially non-random pattern in atransverse plane of the energy relay; and wherein the second modulecomprises an arrangement of the third and fourth component engineeredstructures in a substantially non-random pattern in the transverse planeof the energy relay.
 9. The energy relay of claim 8, wherein the firstand second component engineered structures comprise substantiallysimilar first engineered properties and substantially differing secondengineered properties, and the third and fourth component engineeredstructures comprise substantially similar first engineered propertiesand substantially differing second engineered properties.
 10. The energyrelay of claim 9, wherein the first engineered property comprisescross-sectional size in the transverse dimension of the energy relay,and the second engineered property comprises refractive index.
 11. Theenergy relay of claim 9, wherein the first engineered property comprisescross-sectional size in the transverse dimension of the energy relay,and the second engineered property comprises acoustic impedance.
 12. Anenergy relay comprising: a first module comprising an arrangement offirst component engineered structures and second component engineeredstructures in a transverse plane of the energy relay; and an energyrelay material; wherein the first module and the energy relay materialare distributed across the transverse plane of the energy relay; whereinthe first and second component engineered structures are both configuredto transport energy belonging to a first energy domain along alongitudinal plane that is normal to the transverse plane, and theenergy relay material is configured to transport energy belonging to asecond energy domain, different from the first energy domain, along thelongitudinal plane that is normal to the transverse plane, the firstmodule having substantially higher transport efficiency in thelongitudinal plane than in the transverse plane for the first energydomain, and the energy relay material having substantially highertransport efficiency in the longitudinal plane than in the transverseplane for the second energy domain.
 13. The energy relay of claim 12,wherein the first module comprises an arrangement of the first andsecond component engineered structures in a substantially non-randompattern in a transverse plane of the energy relay.
 14. The energy relayof claim 13, wherein the first and second component engineeredstructures comprise substantially similar first engineered propertiesand substantially differing second engineered properties.
 15. The energyrelay of claim 14, wherein the first engineered property comprisescross-sectional size in the transverse dimension of the energy relay,and the second engineered property comprises refractive index.
 16. Theenergy relay of claim 14, wherein the first engineered propertycomprises cross-sectional size in the transverse dimension of the energyrelay, and the second engineered property comprises acoustic impedance.17. The energy relay of claim 13, wherein the first energy domaincomprises a first band of the electromagnetic spectrum, and the secondenergy domain comprises a second band of the electromagnetic spectrum,at least a portion of the first and second bands not overlapping. 18.The energy relay of claim 13, wherein the first energy domain compriseselectromagnetic energy, and the second energy domain comprisesmechanical energy.
 19. The energy relay of claim 12, wherein the firstmodule comprises an arrangement of the first and second componentengineered structures in a substantially random pattern in a transverseplane of the energy relay.